The Reel Review
A group of researchers must fight for their lives when a malevolent mining operation unleashes the titular megalodons from a deepsea trench on them and nearby tourists at a Chinese beach resort. Jason Statham reprises his role in this sequel to 2018’s The Meg.
Wow, what a terrible, toothless mess of a movie. The first hour and 20 minutes is a surprisingly shark-free, shark movie – a listless, phoned-in story more about illegal ocean floor mining than it is about giant, murderous sharks. Director Ben Wheatley (Rebecca, Sightseers, Kill List) turns the story, based on the 1999 Steve Alten novel “The Trench,” into a dull, sloppier rehash of the original film, lacking any personality, excitement or humor. Even Statham looks bored, ready to wrap this up, collect his paycheck and leave.
Similar to the original film, the last 40 minutes does a total 180 and turns into a zany creature feature, a Sharknado-styled knockoff of Jurassic World Dominion, with megalodons and other giant prehistoric creatures gobbling up Chinese tourists at nearby Fun Island, in the most bloodless, PG-13 friendly way possible. The lazy, incredibly fake-looking point-of-view shot from inside a megalodon as it gobbles up Chinese beachgoers sums up how painfully lame this film truly is.
REEL FACTS
• Jason Statham did most of his own stunts in Meg 2: The Trench himself, including the jet-ski chase sequence.
• While Meg 2: The Trench earned $82 million in the U.S., worldwide it has earned an astounding, additional $312 million, more than a third of that from theaters in China. Its production budget was about $139 million.
• Meg 2: The Trench was filmed in Phuket, Thailand, Hong Kong, parts of China and the Warner Brothers Burbank Studios near Los Angeles.
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