Time: 116 Minutes
Age Rating: M – Violence
Cast:
Jason Statham as Jonas Taylor
Wu Jing as Jiuming Zhang
Sophia Cai as Meiying
Cliff Curtis as Mac
Page Kennedy as DJ
Sergio Peris Mencheta as Montes
Skyler Samuels as Jess
Melissanthi Mahut as Rigas
Sienna Guillory as Driscoll
Director: Ben Wheatley

Jonas Taylor leads a research team on an exploratory dive into the deepest depths of the ocean. Their voyage spirals into chaos when a malevolent mining operation threatens their mission and forces them into a high-stakes battle for survival. Pitted against colossal, prehistoric sharks and relentless environmental plunderers, they must outrun, outsmart and outswim their merciless predators.

The Meg starring Jason Statham wasn’t a good movie, but I thought it was enjoyable for what it was. So I was open to Meg 2 despite its reviews not being the best. My thoughts are largely similar to the first movie, its very flawed to say the least, but I liked it.

Meg 2 has a very familiar plot and doesn’t have a good script. It is sillier than the first movie and doesn’t make sense, even defying physics to a great degree. However, that’s what makes it enjoyable. That said, its really held back by the first half. In this section it largely takes place deep under the ocean, it takes itself too seriously, there’s lots of exposition and the action is hard to watch. A lot of the monster stuff takes a backseat to some subplot about an evil mining operation and while I wouldn’t say the first half is dull, its almost dull. Even the dumb plot twists weren’t that entertaining. Thankfully, it really picks up in the second half, in which it largely takes place on a place called Fun Island. It delivers on the idiotic fun you were expecting from the trailer; its funny, entertaining, and does things more absurd than in the first movie. It even gets creative with the set pieces there. So while I found the first half disappointing, its worth sticking with it to get to the entertaining second half.

The cast do well, and everyone is having a good time from Jason Statham in the lead role, to Wu Jing, Cliff Curtis, Page Kennedy, Sophia Cai and Melissanthi Mahut. That said, the human villains are very generic.

Meg 2 is helmed this time by Ben Wheatley and while I haven’t seen a lot of his movies, I liked the one film I saw of his, Free Fire. His work here could’ve been better, but its fine enough. The scenes in the trench are really darkly lit and its hard to see what’s going on. Beyond that, the action scenes are entertaining (mainly in the second half), and they do get creative with the cinematography at times. The Trench creatures are also well designed, the megs looked great, and there are some decent attempts at jumpscares and tensions. The CGI looks really bad, but in the second half I’m enjoying those scenes anyway, so it doesn’t diminish the enjoyment that much.

Meg 2: The Trench takes itself a bit too seriously for the first half, but it pays off in the absurdly over the top and goofy second half. It’s very uneven, but entertaining enough, and worth checking out if you liked the first movie.