The Meg 2: The Trench Review

4/10

My expectations weren't high for this sequel and still, the film doesn't quite reach them. This action-adventure changes direction from the first movie, focusing more on humans doing illegal dumping and mining activities rather than megalodons eating people. The villains aren't given enough screen time for us to care about them and they all seem hell-bent on killing Jason Statham's Jonas for flimsy reasons. The twist towards the midpoint of the story is telegraphed so blatantly that you would have to be actively trying not to figure it out for the big reveal to have any impact.

It also feels like the characters learned nothing from the first movie. Half of the original movie is spent attempting to kill one megalodon and in this movie, they are keeping one in captivity and even going for swims in the tank with it. Each character is either too arrogant or too stupid to make any intelligent decisions and all other characters seem to know how dangerous and stupid the decisions are but refuse to question them. Jonas seems to be the only character capable of doing anything, everyone else repeatedly needing to be saved by him. Even when one character builds a makeshift bomb and uses it, he still needs saving a few minutes later when trying to pull someone else out of a wrecked helicopter.

Still, the movie is not all bad. If you went into the movie expecting something similar to Sharknado, you probably left the theater satisfied. There were multiple moments in the movie that genuinely had me laughing, whether it was intentional or otherwise and there is a ridiculous one-liner towards the end of the movie that was so terrible and corny that I couldn't help but laugh, if at nothing else than the fact that it not only made it into the final cut or that Statham is able to deliver the line with a straight face.

All in all, while this is not a movie that is going to move you in any way or make you feel any profound feeling if you are a fan of the Sharknado, Anaconda, Deep Blue Sea or a lover of 2000's action movies, this is the movie for you. Otherwise, skip it.

Thank you to anyone who read my first review here extra thanks if you made it to the end!