We went to see Meg 2: The Trench and are here to let you know if it is worth checking out.
For as much as I enjoyed the first Meg film when it came out in 2018, I was a little surprised when I first heard a sequel was in the works. The first film left everything pretty much wrapped up, so what more could a sequel possibly do?
Meg 2: The Trench
Directed By: Ben Wheatley
Written By: JOn Hoeber, Erich Hoeber, Dean Georgaris
Starring: Jason Statham, Wu Jing, Sophia Cai, Page Kennedy
Release Date: August 4, 2023
As it turns out, quite a bit. While Meg 2: The Trench doesn’t reach the level of the original film, it’s still quite a bit of dumb fun, provided you don’t think about the premise too hard. The film takes place in the present day, five years after the original film and sees Jonas (Jason Statham) forced to deal with the terrifying Megalodons once again when several once more manage to escape from the Trench to terrorize the surface.
The plot of Meg 2: The Trench is largely predictable, but the film does manage to spring a few surprises on the audience. I’m not sure if it’s good or bad though that none of those twists involve the Megalodons. Rather, all the twists involve various human characters. Granted, the shock value they provide is entertaining, but it doesn’t change the fact that everything with the sharks plays out exactly the way you think it will.
Another pleasant surprise is how funny parts of this film were. The duo of Page Kennedy and Cliff Curtis, reprising their roles as DJ and Mac respectively, were some of my favorite parts to watch outside of watching Statham hunting Megs. Truthfully, I would happily watch a spin-off where DJ and Mac bumble their way through some type of adventure. That would be comedy gold.
Where the film really suffers though is in the last act. Up until that point, the film had largely managed to toe the line established by the original film, with the exclusion of an underwater scene that had me rolling my eyes at the unbelievability of it all. However, once the last act gets going, the film tries to get you to accept that other prehistoric creatures besides Megalodon have survived in the Trench for millions of years. This might have worked, except there’s no good reason for the creatures in question to be living at the bottom of the sea, completely unaltered from how they looked in the prehistoric era.
While it is loosely plausible for a giant shark species like Megalodon to have survived at the deepest levels of the ocean, the notion that smaller species managed to do the same at such an extreme depth they clearly weren’t made for….that’s where I had to draw a line. I know this isn’t a film that’s meant to be anywhere close to scientifically accurate but they really didn’t think this part through and it shows.
Last act problems aside, I did enjoy Meg 2: The Trench for what it is. As with the original film, this is a silly film that knows everyone is coming to see the giant shark mayhem. In that regard, the film doesn’t disappoint at all. It’s everything else that got added in with the giant sharks that brings the overall film down a notch. I genuinely hope a third film isn’t attempted because I feel like they’ve done everything they can in two films without pushing things too far.
