Meg 2: The Trench (2023)
Back in 2018 I wrote the following about The Meg in my review. “My interest doesn’t go so far as a sequel. This sort of movie is the equivalent of a greasy burger you buy at the funfair. It’s fine once in a while as an indulgence, despite the fact that you know it’s bad, but you would soon tire of them being a regular part of my diet”. Five years later, I foolishly thought it may be “fun” to give the sequel, Meg 2: The Trench (2023), a go. Especially in light of the fact that it’s directed by Ben Wheatley. Surely such a filmmaker would bring some creativity and a fresh perspective to this franchise? Nope. Turns out he didn’t. Meg 2: The Trench lacks everything that made its predecessor tolerable. This superfluous sequel is an uninspired, poorly written mess which confuses turning everything up to eleven with entertainment. It gets nowhere near “it’s so bad, it’s good” territory. Instead it makes the biggest mistake a film of this nature can do. It’s dull.
Five years on from the first film, Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) now works for Mana One Marine Research centre, which is currently exploring the depth of the Mariana Trench where the Megalodons and other unknown ichthyofauna live. Along with company director Jiuming Zhang (Wu Jing), Taylor takes two submersibles to an uncharted part of the trench and finds to his surprise an illegal mining operation on the ocean floor. They are ambushed by a mercenary named Montes (Sergio Peris-Mencheta) and forced to abandon their vessels and walk along the ocean floor to reach the unknown mining base. After contacting Mana One, they learn that the rescue submarine has been sabotaged. Furthermore, an explosion caused by the mining operation has breached the thermocline barrier and provided a means for three megalodons and other creatures to reach the surface.
Like its predecessor Meg 2: The Trench has solid production values. A lot of money has been spent on the production design and sets. Meg 2: The Trench is far from cheap and cheerful. The film also handles dialogue in two languages well, as several characters frequently switch between conversing in English and Mandarin. Sadly the screenplay is perfunctory and the dialogue predictable. Most of the characters are two dimensional and hence disposable. When the big reveal happens involving a team member who has betrayed their colleagues, it has no impact. There is also a conveyor belt of “red shirt” mercenaries who are regularly introduced, just to provide the various beasties something to chow down on. There is also a somewhat anachronistic comedic African American character, played by Page Kennedy, that feels it’s been cribbed from an eighties action movie.
The action scenes are competently constructed but like most “creature features”with a PG-13 rating, they are mostly bloodless and free from any real threat or dramatic weight. There is an attempt to try and make some of the deaths a little more creative to try and compensate for this. One character’s exosuit implodes and the visual effects handle this quite well. But the same problem from the first movie persists into the second. The Megalodons are so large they swallow people and things whole, which effectively mitigates any shock factor. The giant Octopus is handled more discreetly and as a result is a more interesting antagonist. However, this is the sort of movie where you know well in advance who will live and who will die. Not even Jason Statham’s pugnacious character can up the ante. Overall Meg 2: The Trench is a classic example of “the same but more” and a squandered opportunity. I was left sadly feeling “so what?” at the end.
