The Meg
2018
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Aug 4, 2023 · Instead of focusing on the fugitive meg—who escapes hysterically easily while the crew is focused on something else—the script by Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber, and Dean Georgaris sends Jonas and his crew deep into the ocean to the trench that the megalodons have called home for centuries.
Aug 4, 2023 · Get ready for the ultimate adrenaline rush this summer in "Meg 2: The Trench," a literally larger-than-life thrill ride that supersizes the 2018 blockbuster and takes the action to higher...
- (760)
- Ben Wheatley
- PG-13
- Jason Statham
- A bigger and badder Meg sequel in all the wrong ways
- What's the best shark movie?
- Verdict
By Matt Donato
Updated: Aug 10, 2023 2:05 pm
Posted: Aug 3, 2023 7:00 pm
It pains this staunch The Meg defender and all-around shark-movie lover to report that Ben Wheatley’s Meg 2: The Trench is a titanic disaster. Like a lazy student caught spying on their neighbor’s test, writers Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber, and Dean Georgaris adapt author Steve Alten’s The Trench by unsubtly “borrowing” from superior films with similar desires to unleash monsters both alien and earthly while humanity pays a brutal price (that we deserve). James Cameron’s Aliens, Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park: The Lost World, William Eubank’s Underwater, and more have their signatures stolen by Meg 2: The Trench, forcing comparisons that never favor 2023’s most infuriating summer release. There have been so few movies about megalodons, and yet Meg 2: The Trench feels like a creature feature we’ve seen a billion times over – probably on late-night cable, only able to hold our attention for fleeting minutes before the channel changes to greener televised pastures.
Jason Statham returns as diver extraordinaire Jonas Taylor, but there’s so little effort made by the trio of writers to get viewers up to speed on his past exploits in the realm of aquatic cryptozoology. The off-screen fridging of Suyin Zhang – Li Bingbing does not return – opens the door for Suyin’s brother Jiuming (played by Chinese action star Wu Jing) to fill in as Statham’s buddy counterpart. It’s a shame, because losing that appealing romantic tension between a charming, multidimensional Statham and Li deflates Meg 2. Statham falls back into the chirpy action-hero stereotypes that have defined his most forgettable efforts, and is less endearing as “Protective Father Figure Statham” chaperoning the return of Sophia Cai as Suyin’s always-makes-the-worst-decision daughter Meiying Zhang. Nameless companions defined by their underwhelming demises, the frustrating imbalance between toothless from-the-deep terrors and B-movie ambitions laughed at for the wrong reasons – it's all so surface-shallow.
An anemic screenplay devoid of connective tissue between The Meg and Meg 2 quickly raises red flags. Georgaris and the Hoeber brothers sacrifice any semblance of thoughtful scripting as Jiuming’s oceanic research project is infiltrated by technology-stealing rivals, churning through waterlogged action beats held together with seen-before storytelling chains rusted to the point of disintegration. It displays all the confidence and craftsmanship of a Syfy Original given a Warner Bros. Discovery budget, which feels so distressingly unlike Wheatley’s other, sharper-witted films. Dialogue dribbles out of mouths like it’s written by an AI database fed only great white schlock like Sharkansas Women's Prison Massacre or Jersey Shore Shark Attack (both real), as the film throttles forward into the most basic plot advancement this side of Weyland-Yutani meets Deep Blue Sea.
Meg 2: The Trench has all the excitement of fishing solo for two hours without a single bite. Wheatley is a shell of himself behind the camera, devoid of personality and originality. If you copy greed-driven subplots, underwater escape sequences, and helmet-imploding deaths from better movies, maybe don’t make it so obvious? Especially when it seem...
- Matt Donato
- 3 min
Unembarrassed about its own absurdity, The Meg 2 delivers amusingly over-the-top aquatic mayhem by the bloody bucketful. Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 25, 2023
Aug 3, 2023 · ‘Meg 2: The Trench’ Review: Gleefully Jumping the Shark. This lively sequel to 2018’s somewhat tepid killer-shark blockbuster greatly improves upon its predecessor by getting gorier,...
Aug 3, 2023 · Reviews. Aug 3, 2023 12:00pm PT. ‘The Meg 2: The Trench’ Review: More Sharks, Less Bite. Jason Statham returns in a sequel that's more over-the-top but still sounds like it was...
Aug 3, 2023 · ‘Meg 2: The Trench’ Review: Jason Statham Carries a Heavy Load in Patchy Prehistoric Shark Sequel. Director Ben Wheatley goes bigger with this follow-up to the surprise summer 2018 hit, this time...
