#MovieReview: Meg 2 brings sharks back to the big screen [Watch]
From Jaws, through Deep Blue Sea and Sharknado, the sea has always proved a good place from which to derive terror.
Meg 2: The Trench is exactly as mindless as a movie about prehistoric giant sharks should be, but largely misses out on the fun.
The sequel to the 2018 smash-hit The Meg delivers more sharks, and other monsters to boot, but cannot replicate the ‘I can’t believe they made this’ feeling of the first outing.
Now before we get too high-minded about all of this, let’s not forget this is a series about British hard man Jason Statham who takes on literal megalodon sharks and dinosaurs.
Tightly crafted plot and perfect story were never going to be front of mind.
Nevertheless, there are classic sequel issues on show here, where an already thin plot from the first movie has to be stretched for another 100 minutes of screentime.
The main plot is basically the same, but an entire storyline about deep-sea rare earth metal mining is crowbarred in and feels out of step with the general tone of the series.
And of course, there are multiple decisions made by characters that are completely removed from reality, even if faced with a giant shark looking for its next meal.
But the final 20 minutes of the movie gives the audience what it has come to expect from this kind of junk sci-fi action mini-genre.
From Jaws, through Deep Blue Sea and Sharknado, the sea has always proved a good place from which to derive terror.
The unknowability of the globe’s vast depths means there is always scope for some new monster to be dredged from a screenwriter’s imagination.
Ever larger sharks, giant squid and even a few prehistoric surprises find their way onto the screen in Meg 2.
When said creatures are involved, this sequel feels as ridiculous as it should, but the hour of ‘humans are the real monsters’ storyline is slow moving and mostly boring.
Although it does not have the same control of tone that The Meg does, this movie feels destined for late night laugh out loud screenings with devoted fans.
For the average viewer however, Meg 2: The Trench is just okay.
Rated 16 for scenes of Language and Violence.
2.5/5.
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