Back in 2018 when The Meg was released it was essentially built with international audiences in mind. Sure, Statham is a draw in the states, but you don’t just give a shark movie a $130M budget with only U.S. audiences in mind. Statham or no Statham. It would ultimately pay off as the film surprised everyone’s expectations by pulling in $145.2M in the U.S. with a staggering $384.9M coming from international audiences.
Thus, we get the inevitable sequel, Meg 2: The Trench from director Ben Wheatley. Naturally, I curbed my expectations going in and I left my thinking cap in the car, but it wasn’t enough to have a good time with this mess of a film. On the positive side, later in the final act when things are going full-on absurd as Statham battles a Megalodon there is some fun to be had in just laughing at the ridiculousness splashing all over the screen.
It certainly is an over-the-top visual spectacle but not so much in a good sense because outside of this wild finale there isn’t much to recommend in this visit to the trench. It was much more along the vibe of a C-Movie like a Three Headed Shark Attack, as opposed to being a big budget movie with a B-Movie atmosphere. It felt like it was trying too hard and frequently taking itself way too seriously. This plot isn’t anything we haven’t seen, but it didn’t feel like the writers were aware of that.
Loads of suspension of disbelief is a given when going into Meg 2, but even with that, the bland story layers and focal plot aren’t that interesting or played out in an engaging way. Nor are any of the characters really genuine and likable outside of Page Kennedy’s DJ. It’s a very choppy story with too many characters, and it takes way too long to get going. This is supposed to be a shark movie so adding other prehistoric creatures and dinosaurs really exposes the limitations of the visual effects department budget wise and it makes the film look like something from cable TV.
We know what this movie is, we know the plot is on the basic side to put it mildly. The megalodon is the draw and the story meanders around too long out of the gate. This makes all the mindless enthusiasm for seeing a killer shark movie wear off quickly in a plot progression filled with a jumbled story, revolving characters, and much too long spent down in the trench. Resulting in dark visually unappealing effects that fail to land the intended impact. With Statham low-key sleepwalking through this performance as his monotone demeanor and a simple replication of his same old fighting maneuvers seeming a bit uninspired.
The Meg was able to capture lightning in a bottle success, for what it actually was. Meg 2: The Trench will have an audience of those who want a mindless killer shark movie for the summer. And admittedly it does have a few spots of amusing gusto in the most ridiculous of ways that I can appreciate. But the movie is twenty-minutes longer than needed and fills too much of the runtime with other creatures that feel and look more Syfy than they do big screen cinema. Making a fun final ten-minutes is not worth the by-the-numbers movie leading up to it.
Grade: D
CAST: Jason Statham, Jing Wu, Shuya Sophia Cai, Page Kennedy, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Cliff Curtis, Skyler Samuels, Melissanthi Mahut, Kiran Sonia Sawar DIRECTOR: Ben Wheatley WRITER(S): Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber, Dean Georgaris DISTRIBUTOR: Warner Bros. Pictures RUNNING TIME: 116 minutes RATING: PG-13 (For action/violence, bloody images, language, suggestive material) YEAR: 2023 LANGUAGE: English GENRE: Action/Adventure/Thriller
Anthony J. Digioia II © 2023 SilverScreen Analysis. All Rights Reserved.
