REVIEW: Meg 2: The Trench (2023)

Movie Reviews

Meg 2: The Trench is the kind of movie that knows its limitations but tries to cover them up rather than make the most of them. The sequel to 2018’s The Meg, which I didn’t like, is better than its predecessor, but not by much; a schlocky creature feature buried under bland characters with confused arcs (when they have any), special effects that vacillate from pretty good to rubbery, and lackluster filmmaking that keeps you at a distance from the action, spectacle, and monster thrills.

Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham), the rescue diver hero who killed the megalodon in the first film, is now an environmental crusader/research diver for a big Chinese company while parenting his deceased girlfriend’s daughter. (Or were they married? The movie is unclear and dispenses with the character in a quick photo montage set to a voiceover.) The company, run by his brother-in-law/girlfriend’s brother/if the movie doesn’t care then neither do I, discovers a deep trench that is home to prehistoric creatures like the megalodons, which they’re attempting to train, much to Jonas’ dismay. But when an accident – or perhaps sabotage – strands them at the bottom of the trench, Jonas must lead his friends and family to the surface and battle the monsters once again.

Watching Meg 2: The Trench, I was struck by how closely the structure of the film resembles that of Aliens. It’s a sequel to a monster movie that ups the ante by packing its plot with even more monsters, has a lot of action and shooting, features an evil company working against the heroes, explores the protagonist’s parental instincts by having him protect a little girl, and even throws in mech suits so humans can stand a better chance against the creatures. It goes without saying that neither of the Meg movies is anywhere near as good as Alien or Aliens, but there are worse dynamics for a sequel to emulate.

And in certain ways, it works; the characters in these movies are threadbare at best – I’m still not sure whether the emotional arc is Statham realizing that he has to stop being protective of the girl or the girl realizing she’s only a kid and needs to listen to her stepfather – so stuffing as much monster mayhem as possible into Meg 2: The Trench is a good distraction, which is what the film ultimately is. Adding the evil humans gives Jason Statham some of his more traditional action beats, which are nowhere near his best but still cool to see after all the seafaring technical jargon starts to get dull. And while none of the characters pop, they all get at least one good moment to endear themselves to the audience, if only through doing something neat on-screen.

Speaking of cool things on the screen, Meg 2: The Trench brings the monsters, serving up a few megalodons, as well as smaller reptilian creatures and a giant octopus. Conceptually, it’s a lot of fun; in practice, it’s occasionally entertaining. There are some neat kills, some darkly funny bits involving people being eaten, and one or two briefly thrilling sequences where characters are in danger. There are also a lot of flat scenes where no one feels like they’re about to be killed and the monsters aren’t particularly menacing. The extraneous characters are there to die, so the first half is just getting Statham and the main cast from A to B with some obligatory sea monster interference. The scarier beats involve things other than the megs and their prehistoric brethren, like cracked oxygen suits and rapidly flooding rooms.

It doesn’t help that the filmmaking is shoddy and over-edited. Ben Wheatley keeps cutting from the main action, keeping us at a distance from the attacks. There are a few good scenes, but too many are choppy and end up being boring instead of exhilarating. The lighting is also poor, with the underwater sequences in the trench being so dark you can barely see what’s going on till it’s time for a close-up of an actor’s face. I suspect this is largely to hide the special effects, which are a jumble of some good, textured creatures and what look like children’s pool toys. An early shot of a lizard looks like it’s got real scales, even on its throat, while the octopus – which should be one of the movie’s centerpieces – never comes alive; comparisons to the Kraken from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest are inevitable, and they’re not flattering. The megalodons look fine, and surprisingly, they all have features that distinguish them from each other, which is a nice touch.

The acting is fine, I suppose. Meg 2: The Trench doesn’t ask much of anyone, so they’re all just spinning their wheels to get through whatever lame dialogue they have to spout to move the story along. Jason Statham is pretty much playing Jason Statham, and that’s fine with me; to the film’s credit, he has more Stathamy things to do here than in the last one. But it would help if any of the characters he’s playing off of had more to them than stock traits – the nervous one, the loudmouth, the one who believes he can train megs, etc. Cliff Curtis, for example, is a very good actor, but what’s the point of putting him in something like this? Sienna Guillory’s character is so one-note and clichéd I didn’t even realize it was her till the end credits. It’s okay if all you want is a lazy Sunday watching shark monsters, but it’s not good.

The score is not bad; it’s got some good tension-building pieces, which are probably at least partly responsible for Meg 2: The Trench’s better sequences. But one thing made me laugh: over the end credits, there’s a rap song that was written specifically for the movie, like they used to do in the 90s. It’s awful, it’s got reaching lyrics about megalodons and being an apex predator, and it’s sung by Page Kennedy, one of the actors in the film. Remember when Will Smith used to do this for his summer sci-fi movies? Listen below and laugh as I laughed till they made me leave:

Meg 2: The Trench is a time-killer. I wouldn’t recommend going to the movies to see it; if you like trashy monster movies, maybe wait till it’s on whatever streaming service buys the rights and you’ve seen everything better.