Movie Review: ‘Meg 2: The Trench’

What’s the story of ‘Meg 2: The Trench’?

Jason Statham as Jonas in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and CMC Pictures’ sci-fi motion thriller “Meg 2: The Trench,” a Warner Bros. Pictures launch. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Jason Statham returns as diving knowledgeable Jonas Taylor who, together with Jiuming Zhang (Wu Jing) leads a daring analysis group on an exploratory dive into the deepest depths of the ocean.

Their voyage spirals into chaos when a malevolent mining operation threatens their mission and forces them right into a high-stakes battle for survival –– as a result of their enemies are usually not simply from the pure world this time.

Pitted in opposition to colossal Megs and relentless environmental plunderers, our heroes should outrun, outsmart, and outswim their cruel predators in a race in opposition to time.

Who else is in ‘Meg 2: The Trench’?

(L to R) Page Kennedy as DJ, Cliff Curtis as Mac and Skyler Samuels as Jess in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and CMC Pictures’ sci-fi motion thriller ‘Meg 2: The Trench,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures launch. Photo Credit: Daniel Smith. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The forged additionally contains Cliff Curtis, Sophia Cai, Page Kennedy (all coming back from the primary film), Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Skyler Samuels and Sienna Guillory.

What swims about ‘Meg 2: The Trench’?

(L to R) Jason Statham as Jonas and Sophia Cai as Meiying in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and CMC Pictures’ sci-fi motion thriller ‘Meg 2: The Trench,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures launch. Photo Credit: Daniel Smith. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

With this second film, ‘The Meg’ movies verify themselves as Jason Statham’s ‘Fast & Furious’ (sure, we all know he’s popped up in a number of of them and co-starred in spin-off ‘Hobbs & Shaw’). By that, we imply a franchise that treats the legal guidelines of physics (and right here, nature) like one thing to be ignored within the title of spectacle and a narrative that just about everybody else is treating with the tongue-in-cheek model one thing comparable to this means whereas the main man barrels his method by way of extra severely.

To give Statham some credit score, although, even he indulges in how goofy all of that is sometimes, displaying extra self-awareness than Vin Diesel ever does within the ‘Fast’ motion pictures. His Jonas Taylor embraces extra of the group effort this time, joking round with Cliff Curtis’ Mac and Sophia Cai’s Meiying. Jing Wu, in the meantime, suits proper in with the gang, bringing his personal motion chops to the position (at one level, having cameras strapped to his physique throughout one notably difficult, explosive sequence).

Wu Jing as Jiuming in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and CMC Pictures’ sci-fi motion thriller ‘Meg 2: The Trench,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures launch. Photo Credit: Daniel Smith. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

While director Ben Wheatley would possibly look like an odd option to direct a film of this model and scale –– in spite of everything, he’s been finest identified for small-scale British horrors comparable to ‘Kills List’, ‘A Field in England’ and ‘In the Earth’, although he has proven loads of versatility in his genre-hopping to this point between the satirical likes of ‘High Rise’ and the dramatic trappings of ‘Rebecca’. Here, he brings some stage of subversion (alongside submersibles) to a loud, wacky motion summer season wannabe blockbuster.

Alongside writers Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber and Dean Georgaris, he has loads of enjoyable dreaming up eventualities to place individuals in danger from the enormous sharks, and even (as seen in one of many film’s trailers) kicks issues off by winding the clock again to the Cretaceous interval to indicate a Meg proving to be the alpha predator even in a world the place dinosaurs dominated the Earth. Perhaps a sly wink at ‘Jurassic Park’ and its personal ‘Jurassic World’ sequel trilogy, the newest of which had its personal nod in direction of prehistory.

Plus, should you had been coming to this for giant beasties, the group behind ‘Meg 2’ actually desires you to go dwelling happy, throwing in a number of Megalodons (together with one which Jing Wu’s character believes he has tamed after discovering it injured as a pup) plus some prehistoric reptilians and an enormous cephalopod, all fellow inhabitants of the darkish waters of the ditch who make it to the floor world by way of causes that, let’s be sincere actually don’t matter.

Does the film sink in any respect?

A scene from Warner Bros. Pictures’ and CMC Pictures’ sci-fi motion thriller “Meg 2: The Trench,” a Warner Bros. Pictures launch. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Naturally, Wheatley can solely achieve this a lot in the case of an enormous studio title comparable to this, which has a longtime format and runs on rails very similar to a theme park trip. Statham’s Taylor may be very a lot your inventory, sometimes quippy hero sort (after dispatching on notably resistant baddie, he says, “so long, chum”, which might make even James Bond wince) whereas everybody else is both within the buddy group, and due to this fact are granted sufficient persona to make it out alive, or shark bait.

The twists and turns are seen from roughly six miles away (and the villainous characters, with one exception, are pantomime baddies) and there are some logic gaps within the story sufficiently big for an enormous, toothy predator to swim by way of. This can be strictly on the identical traces as the unique in the case of the kills: PG-13, which implies whereas Wheatley and the writers have a number of creative moments, it’s an nearly solely cold affair the place the large monsters swallow individuals somewhat than biting them, and the smaller ones not often get to do way more than chomp as soon as.

Also, whereas the trailers have been filled with the sharks let free at an island resort, that’s principally relegated to the ultimate act, the continuing operating time given over to a tense sequence within the trench the place our heroes are combating for his or her lives in opposition to extra than simply the toothy terrors. It’s completely serviceable however by no means as pleasurable because the full-on Megalodon chaos.

A scene from Warner Bros. Pictures’ and CMC Pictures’ sci-fi motion thriller “Meg 2: The Trench,” a Warner Bros. Pictures launch. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Most disappointingly for a movie that desires to be a big-budget model of these Megashark Vs. Giant Dolphin-style motion pictures (assume ‘Sharknado’ with ‘Godzilla’ manufacturing values), a number of the visuals are shockingly primary, a number of of the consequences much less convincing than a kind of cheapo cash-in movies and the entire thing coming throughout as rushed and re-shot. It’s additionally a kind of motion pictures that smacks of components being inserted in order that it’ll play nicely in China –– not a unfavorable per se, however it’s so blindingly apparent at instances as to be annoying.

Still, should you loved the primary ‘Meg’ again in 2018 and also you had been hoping that the sequel would provide extra of the identical, simply larger, louder and with even much less of a mind, ‘Meg 2: The Trench’ actually delivers on that entrance. And should you’re prepared to place up with the extra ridiculous components, it’s definitely worth the dive, even when it isn’t a deep one regardless of the title.

‘Meg 2: The Trench’ receives 7 out of 10 stars.

Jason Statham as Jonas in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and CMC Pictures’ sci-fi motion thriller “Meg 2: The Trench,” a Warner Bros. Pictures launch. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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‘Meg 2: The Trench’ is produced by Apelles Entertainment, Warner Bros. Pictures, di Bonaventura Pictures, and CMC Pictures. It is scheduled to launch in theaters on August 4th, 2023.