Meg 2: The Trench review

Director: Ben Wheatley
Cast: Jason Statham, Wu Jing, Sophia Cai, Page Kennedy, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Skyler Samuels, Cliff Curtis, Sienna Guillory
Genre: Action/Thriller
Run Time: 116 min
Opens: 3 August 2023
Rating: PG13

One bite is never enough – at least, that’s the philosophy giant prehistoric sharks espouse. 2018’s The Meg was based on the first novel in Steve Alten’s Meg series – Alten has written seven Meg books, with an eighth on the way, so there’s potential for many more Meg movies yet. In this sequel, Jason Statham is back to face off against more Megalodon sharks and other beasties.

Statham plays Jonas Taylor, a former rescue diver-turned environmental activist. Jonas works alongside Jiuming (Wu Jing), an oceanographer and head of the Zhang Institute. Jiuming is the uncle of Meiying (Sophia Cai), who is something of a surrogate daughter to Jonas. Jiuming’s facility in Hainan, China, keeps a Megalodon shark named Haiqi in captivity, captured when she was a pup. Haiqi begins acting erratically. When a routine dive to the depths of the Mariana Trench goes awry, Jonas, Jiuming and their crew become stranded. They discover an illegal undersea mining operation, and an explosion disrupts the thermocline, a cloud of hydrogen sulphide sealing off a hidden undersea world. This creates a hole through which several Megalodon escape. When the giant sharks and other monsters that were previously trapped below the thermocline swim to the surface, Jonas, Jiuming, Mac (Cliff Curtis) and DJ (Page Kennedy) must prevent the creatures from attacking a beach resort.

Ben Wheatley replaces Jon Turteltaub in the director’s chair, and he is a curious choice: the British filmmaker has an eclectic filmography spanning everything from crime thriller comedy Down Terrace to dystopian thriller High-Rise to a remake of Rebecca. He’s far from an obvious choice for a movie like this but does a fine job on what is far and away his biggest movie. Meg 2: The Trench is silly, and it knows it. Still, there are a few moments of genuine tension, especially in the first half of the film. The action is generally more visceral than in the first movie, and the sequence of our heroes attempting to traverse the deep ocean floor in dive suits is atmospheric and suspenseful.

Jason Statham is in fine action hero form, complemented here by Wu Jing of Wolf Warrior fame. There are moments when both actors’ characters seem to practically have superpowers, but there are also moments of goofiness, including a scene in which Wu whacks prehistoric lizards called Snappers with a shovel, accidentally hitting himself in the face. The Trench is a B-movie with an A-movie budget, which happens to be a subgenre this reviewer adores.

Unfortunately, The Trench is often too silly for its own good, especially in the second half. The movie attempts to one-up its predecessor, but also brazenly includes a climactic set-piece that is almost a replica of the Sanya sequence in the first movie. The Trench is much more expensive than the giant shark movies that are The Asylum’s stock in trade (think Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus and its sequels), but sometimes comes dangerously close to feeling like them. The Megalodon sharks are digital creations, and the visual effects work is uneven – in some sequences, including the walk across the trench floor, it is technically excellent and even beautiful, but other times, the creatures look patently cartoony. There is an attempt at intrigue with the human villains’ plot, but they’re almost as cartoony as the prehistoric monsters.

The first movie was a result of that somewhat awkward era of US-China co-productions, when several huge Hollywood movies would be co-financed by Chinese entities and as such need to cater to Chinese audiences. That era of Hollywood filmmaking is over, at least for now, due to various factors including the Covid-19 pandemic and strained diplomatic relations between both countries. Meg 2 is an indication that we might be seeing more movies like that again, especially given that Wu Jing is arguably China’s biggest action star currently working. Li Bingbing was set to reprise her role from the first film, but dropped out for undisclosed reasons, and the story was rewritten to have her character’s brother be the co-lead instead.

Summary: Meg 2: The Trench is very much a “you know what you’re getting” movie, just as its predecessor was. Ben Wheatley has an eclectic filmography and is an unusual choice of director for a big commercial movie like this, but he handles things relatively well. There are moments of genuine atmospheric tension and at other times, the movie is goofily enjoyable. Unfortunately, it seems to recycle a major set-piece from the first Meg movie almost wholesale. The visual effects work is also uneven, and the prehistoric monsters are often unconvincing rather than scary. Still, there is a joy to be had with this B-movie in an A-movie’s clothes.

RATING: 3 out of 5 Stars                      

Jedd Jong