The Pitch: Steven Spielberg has shared with the world many important lessons about life. Lesson one: Avoid bodies of water occupied by a large shark. Lesson two: Avoid any situation involving prehistoric creatures. Lesson three: For god’s sake, avoid both of those things! And yet sadly, for a reasonably sized percentage of the characters in Meg 2: The Trench, that advice goes unheeded.
Things begin with the return of Jason Statham as an eco-warrior/”green James Bond” still working with the Mana One research facility from the first film, while also occasionally taking down evil polluters of our magnificent oceans. (It’s important to have hobbies.) The danger’s a lot closer to home, though, when a planned dive down to the Trench goes awry — the Trench being an unexplored region of the ocean floor, the perfect place for giant sharks from the days of the dinosaurs to hang out and be chill.
Once Jason Statham and his compatriots (including his adopted tweenage daughter, having stowed away) find themselves trapped on the ocean floor, it’s a life-or-death struggle between humans, giant sharks, and even bigger threats from below the surface. Though the biggest threat, as per usual, is other humans — especially once the dangers of the Trench make it to the coastline…
Summertime, and the Movies Are Easy… There’s a temptation to judge the films of August by a different standard than others. It’s summer, after all, a time for icy drinks, whatever length of shorts you’re comfortable with, and going to the movies just because you don’t have central A/C and maybe you’ll get to see a giant shark eat some people.
On that score, Meg 2: The Trench absolutely delivers. It’s a little bizarre to see the name of Ben Wheatley, a director whose credits include the well-regarded 2016 dystopian thriller High-Rise, on this movie. (Jon Turteltaub directed the first installment.) However, while Wheatley doesn’t attempt to imbue any sort of visual flair on screen, he does have a solid understanding of what’s needed to make a genre picture like this work, hitting the necessary beats in a reliable way with plenty of humor involved.
Looking for sparks of genuine originality in Meg 2 is as foolish as asking Jason Statham to do an American accent; even the opening sequence indirectly recalls Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon’s underwater adventures in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and directly recalls Colin Trevorrow’s original opening for Jurassic World: Dominion. However, like Jason Statham, the movie knows its job, and delivers on exactly the level you’re hoping for.
Statham v. Shark — Who Ya Got? Perhaps the most surprising element of Meg 2 is how little interest it has in reminding the viewer who any of the characters from the first film are; if you take nothing else from this review, please take the advice that you should watch the first Meg (streaming on Max) before hitting the theater. The only character who gets any substantial development in The Trench besides Jason Statham is new addition Jiuming (Wu Jing), uncle to Meiying (the little girl from the first film, played by Sophia Cai). However, there are still character twists that hinge on previous knowledge of the first film, in ways that recall the interconnectedness of the MCU. (The Meg Cinematic Universe is surely on the horizon.)
You’ll note this review just refers to Jason Statham’s character as Jason Statham, which is because it’s way past time to stop pretending that when Jason Statham is cast in a role, he’s being asked to do anything besides play Jason Statham. Sometimes Jason Statham is on the side of the angels, sometimes Jason Statham is on the side of the devil, but he is always reliably Jason Statham, kick-punching and growling his way through whatever problems the high-concept premise presents. His character in the Meg films originated in the novels by Steve Alten (The Trench being the second book in the series), and the character does have a name, it’s Jonas. But Jonas is, of course, an anagram for Jason. It’s like Steve knew.
There’s a fair amount of comic relief embedded in the film, often from unexpected places — for example, Cliff Curtis gets some actual moments of slapstick, which steps outside the expectations you might normally have for a traditional Cliff Curtis appearance. (The man does stoic well, what can we say?)
Actually, considering the script for this film is a fascinating issue, because there are moments of comedy that feel well-developed and funny, and then there are moments that are funny because they feel like they came from the very first draft of the script. For example, the third act revolves around the creatures of the Trench making shore on a tropical resort island… called “Fun Island.” They put the name on the screen in big-ass letters. “Fun Island.”
It does look fun! Before the sharks get there, of course.
The Verdict: There aren’t any twists in The Trench that come as a real shock, thanks to cartoonish character beats that telegraph every major development, and the CGI sea creatures involved are serviceable, with the undersea action only occasionally feeling murky and hard to follow. Still, as giant shark movies go, it’s a far more coherent entry in the genre than others, with effects work that’s several notches above the rest.
There’s an infamously bad direct-to-video film called Shark Attack 3: Megalodon which features some genuinely awful effects work, such as this shot of a jet-ski-er driving right into a shark’s mouth. Meg 2 features a shot that’s actually kind of similar, but it looks a lot better. It’s the kind of late summer cheese that’s not totally embarrassing to gobble down… especially if you’re using your AMC A-List subscription as a way to beat the heat.
Where to Watch: Meg 2: The Trench chomps into theaters on Friday, August 4th.
Trailer: