Meg 2: The Trench (2023) Review

 "This is truly a terrible idea."

-Jonas Taylor

Five years after the first film, Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) is still part of the research team that is focused on exploring the Mariana Trench.  When an expedition goes wrong, Jonas and his team discover another mysterious expedition on the Trench floor and even more deadly creatures in the abyss.

What Works:

I love Jason Statham.  He always gives it his all, no matter how dumb the movie is.  I would say especially if the movie is dumb.  He's one of the only actors who can deliver some of theses lines believably.  He fully commits to the role and has the charisma to back it up.

I will give the middle section of the movie credit for being something different from the first film, even if the execution is bad.  There is a large section of the film where our heroes are trapped on the ocean floor.  It's a cool idea and I kinda wish this had been the entire movie, if they had done a better job.  The rest of the movie is pretty much a retread of the first film, so I want to give the movie credit for doing something interesting for at least part of the film.

Finally, there are a few fun moments when the movie goes fully over-the-top.  Most of these moments are in the trailer.  The T-Rex getting eaten by the Meg and Jason Statham fighting sharks on a jet ski are both really fun.  There are a couple of other moments like this in the 3rd act.  There isn't nearly enough of the fun insanity, but I liked what we got.

What Sucks:

The problem with most of this movie is that it isn't much fun.  Apart from the scenes I mentioned above, it's mostly a slog.  There just isn't enough to really hold my interest, even though it should on paper.

All of the characters suck.  None of them are interesting in the slightest.  Jonas Taylor is not an interesting character.  Jason Statham is just enjoyable to watch.  Those are two very different things.  The rest of the cast doesn't bring much to the table.  I didn't care about anyone and every character is severely under developed.  This makes it impossible to get invested in the story.

Apart from Statham, the acting is pretty bad across the board.  Wu Jing and Sienna Guillory are especially bad, but it isn't just them.  Some of the line deliveries are just painful.

The movie feels like three movies combined into one.  We have the team trapped on the bottom of the ocean floor, we have the mercenary attack on the research station, and the shark attack at the beach resort.  Each of these could have been their own movie if they had focused on developing characters and taken some time to explore each of these premises.  Instead, everything feels rushed.  The movie needed to slow down and focus on the story it wanted to tell.   I'm not expecting Citizen Kane here, but they could have made a fun survival film in any of these three locations if they had just focused.

The film is far too long.  Because the movie is so unfocused, it drags across all of the locations.  The 3rd act is especially long, especially when they are in the jungle.  This is a shark movie.  Why are we in the jungle?  This movie is nearly 2 hours long.  Trim it down to a crisp 90 minutes with credits and focus the story and you have a solid creature feature on your hands.

Finally, this is an ugly looking film.  It's not well directed, shot, or lit.  It's hard to tell what is happening at times.  There are some gorgeous locations in this movie that the filmmakers manage to make look very unappealing.  And most of the action sequences look bad.

Verdict:

I was really excited for Meg 2 mostly because the trailer made it look so fun.  Unfortunately almost all of the fun stuff was in the trailer.  Jason Statham tries his best, but it feels like he's the only one who tried.  The writing, directing, cinematography, and acting are all atrocious, the story is unfocused, rushed, and uninteresting, the characters suck, and the movie isn't anywhere as fun as it should have been.  Definitely one of the most disappointing movies of the year.

 3/10: Really Bad