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 catastrophe. Like a lazy pupil caught spying on their neighbor’s check, writers Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber, and Dean Georgaris adapt creator Steve Alten’s The Trench by unsubtly “borrowing” from superior movies with related wishes to unleash monsters each alien and earthly whereas humanity pays a brutal value (that we deserve). James Cameron’s Aliens, Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park: The Misplaced World, William Eubank’s Underwater, and extra have their signatures stolen by Meg 2: The Trench, forcing comparisons that by no means favor 2023’s most infuriating summer season launch. There have been so few films about megalodons, and but Meg 2: The Trench appears like a creature function we’ve seen a billion instances over – in all probability on late-night cable, solely in a position to maintain our consideration for fleeting minutes earlier than the channel adjustments to greener televised pastures.
Jason Statham returns as diver extraordinaire Jonas Taylor, however there’s so little effort made by the trio of writers to get viewers in control on his previous exploits within the realm of aquatic cryptozoology. The off-screen fridging of Suyin Zhang – Li Bingbing doesn’t return – opens the door for Suyin’s brother Jiuming (performed by Chinese language motion star Wu Jing) to fill in as Statham’s buddy counterpart. It’s a disgrace, as a result of shedding that interesting romantic stress between a captivating, multidimensional Statham and Li deflates Meg 2. Statham falls again into the chirpy action-hero stereotypes which have outlined his most forgettable efforts, and is much less endearing as “Protective Father Figure Statham” chaperoning the return of Sophia Cai as Suyin’s always-makes-the-worst-decision daughter Meiying Zhang. Anonymous companions outlined by their underwhelming demises, the irritating imbalance between toothless from-the-deep terrors and B-movie ambitions laughed at for the incorrect causes – it is all so surface-shallow.
An anemic screenplay devoid of connective tissue between The Meg and Meg 2 rapidly raises pink flags. Georgaris and the Hoeber brothers sacrifice any semblance of considerate scripting as Jiuming’s oceanic analysis challenge is infiltrated by technology-stealing rivals, churning via waterlogged motion beats held along with seen-before storytelling chains rusted to the purpose of disintegration. It shows all the boldness and craftsmanship of a Syfy Authentic given a Warner Bros. Discovery price range, which feels so distressingly in contrast to Wheatley’s different, sharper-witted movies. Dialogue dribbles out of mouths prefer it’s written by an AI database fed solely nice white schlock like Sharkansas Ladies’s Jail Bloodbath or Jersey Shore Shark Assault (each actual), because the movie throttles ahead into essentially the most primary plot development this aspect of Weyland-Yutani meets Deep Blue Sea.
Even worse, Meg 2 devolves into a visible eyesore after an virtually solely submerged first act surfaces for sea monster feeding frenzies at an Instagramable paradise numbingly dubbed “Fun Island.” There are photographs as Taylor leads exosuit-wearing divers throughout “The Trench” the place the great thing about unexplored ocean depths illuminates – neon tendrils on flora wave with the present, and child octopi coloured like completely different Skittles flavors bob like buoys. Then the motion reaches shore, and atrocities in opposition to inexperienced display screen utilization grow to be the norm. Assault sequences look horrendous as computerized recreations of megalodons, human snacks, and water splashes layer jankily atop each other. Digital results within the again half current as embarrassingly rushed versus the movie’s extra spectacular starting, virtually like a complete completely different group – from director on down – reshot all the things underneath frugal circumstances at a breakneck tempo. That might additionally clarify the barren manufacturing design round Enjoyable Island, which provides up dressing empty area, creating places that in some way devalue scenic Chinese language landscapes.
Not even carnage can salvage Meg 2. Statham and Wu wage warfare in opposition to megs with selfmade explosive spears whereas driving private watercraft like spring break jousters, and but there’s no lasting impression left by the violence. The gore of Meg 2 is PG-13 tame and fully animal-related – a grievance the equally rated first movie dodged due to thicker stress, intense thrills, and much tighter tonal command. Just a few chills are felt when a meg swims out of The Trench’s pitch-black shadows and proper previous Taylor’s billion-dollar submersible, however there’s hardly any horror elsewhere. The repetition of megs swallowing victims entire to keep away from disgusting accidents overstays its welcome.
It’s astonishing to witness Meg 2 nosedive, as a result of the opening third – a survival-horror stretch about escaping The Trench – earns a shoulders-shrugged-up “fine.” The remaining two-thirds sink like a stone statue sporting concrete footwear. High quality diminishes as performances grow to be more and more phoned-in or special-effects consideration wanes (as talked about above). Key friends of Enjoyable Island possess the on-screen presence of rich Patreon donors who spent tens of hundreds for a small talking function – to not excuse top-billed actors like Sienna Guillory or Skyler Samuels, whose lifeless turns received’t be clipped for demo reels. Even one thing as innocuous as ADR’ed traces – a typical technical component in all films – hit with an amateurish choppiness that doesn’t match the attention for element Wheatley exhibited in Kill Checklist and Sightseers.
When Meg 2: The Trench embraces the easier shark-infested pleasures that outline the unique, it is at its greatest. Web page Kennedy steals scenes as returning engineer DJ, overcoming his wimpier methods and reborn as an motion hero this time round. Cliff Curtis will get to lob jokes at Statham’s harder-edged lead, and people would possibly sneak a fast smirk. Swarms of reptilian mini-predators thrash and gnash at Taylor’s colleagues in The Trench, a further risk that provides much-needed adversarial alternatives. These are glints of a greater Meg 2: The Trench, directed by a filmmaker with enthusiasm for his imaginative and prescient, whereas the remainder appears like studio gruel that values nothing however spectacular distraction with none substance or ardour for the artwork kind.
