Meg 2: The Trench Review
Here’s my Meg 2: The Trench review which is directed by Ben Wheatley and stars Jason Statham.
Jason Statham returns for a second chomping for the film franchise and I actually enjoyed the film although it suffers from the usual Hollywood film franchises which I’ll talk about later. Statham is joined by actor Wu Jing fresh off his role in “The Wandering Earth 2”. In this adventure, the team returns underwater to do a rescue mission only to be caught in a secret mining operation inside the Trench. Jonas and his team gets trapped under the Trench but make a daring escape only to find that they have a traitor in their midst. All the while three huge Megs or Megalodons once again escape to the surface to eat more people in horrible fashion.
I enjoyed Meg 2 honestly. It’s campy and silly and the shark kills are brutal. The CGI is pretty clean too so its on par with the first Meg movie from a few years back. Even better now is that we can see little bits of things in these prehistoric sharks that give them a bit of personality and that comes to “bite” our heroes later in the film.
It’s crazy also that most of the supporting characters here have been fleshed out whether it’s Cliff Curtis actually sounding funny to Wu Jing’s take as a smart but quirky new member and uncle to Meiying whose all grown up now for this adventure. Even Meiying gets in on the action which is neat.
But its not just the humans who get more fleshed out stuff in the film. Even the creatures from the Trench have surprisingly come up with creative ways to be relevant. There are these ferocious looking dinosaurs that managed to escape the trench and have wreaked havoc in the locale for the third act called “Fun Island” where they chomp down and kill many beachgoers and island guests. There’s also this giant octopus that gives the Megs a run for their money both underwater and in the surface. Great creature design too. This makes Meg 2 take a progressive step towards trying to take it seriously.
The film’s ending also opens up a possibility for a third movie which I hope is as equally fun as this romp but I hope that the cast for Meg 2 returns to this possible third movie. Maybe add in some new faces again?
The absence of Li Bingbing also causes a big gap that gets explained in a few lines of dialogue here and there. But was she sorely missed? Not really because they really don’t need a romantic angle for a film that’s all about giant sharks and people trying to kill them before they cause significant harm. Replacing Bingbing with actor Wu Jin was also a good call because not only do we have another action here type character, we get somebody who can double as the brains and get away with (stereotyping be damned) and he does have this really good bromance going on with Statham.
If you want mindless fun with a proven action here with some really over-the-top scenes including a bald guy on a jetski with a spear or a katana about to kill a giant shark then this movie is definitely for you.
Also I have to comment on how two dimensional the villains are in this picture. Super generic but they went down in a satisfying way with one of them even borrowing a leaf from Jurassic Park albeit switching from a car to a helicopter.
7/10
Special thanks to Warner Bros Pictures for the invites!
