Meg 2: The Trench movie review Jason Statham, Wu Jing confronts a giant prehistoric shark and mo
2/5 stars
Jason Statham dives in for another lap of shark-punching action in Meg 2: The Trench, accompanied by Chinese action star Wu Jing.Gung-ho eco-warrior Jonas Taylor (Statham) must do battle with more than a giant prehistoric megalodon this time out, when his diving team is stranded at the bottom of an oceanic trench where all manner of primordial monsters lie in wait.
British director Ben Wheatley, best known for his indie horror films such as Kill List, takes the helm of this US-China co-production, but has little opportunity to stamp his mark on a cautiously commercial adventure.
While the script is littered with knowing references to the Jaws franchise, Jurassic Park and dozens of other beloved ’80s favourites, Meg 2 emerges as a disappointingly bloodless affair.
Wu plays billionaire philanthropist Jiuming, brother of Li Bingbing’s character from the first film and owner of a cutting-edge oceanographic institute in Hainan which has its own captive Meg.Why The Meg is the most successful China-US co-production ever
Together with Taylor, he leads a diving mission below the thermocline – the layer between warmer surface water and the cooler water below – to the bottom of an oceanic trench.
But when an unexpected run-in with an illegal mining operation scuttles their submersibles, the crew is trapped 6 kilometres (3.7 miles) beneath the surface, surrounded by shoals of hostile, ancient predators.
It is hard to imagine an action film headlined by Statham and Wu – both of whom serve as executive producers – without any close-quarters martial arts, but here Wu is given only Jackie Chan-style slapstick stunt work to perform.
Statham gets to throw a couple of punches, but mostly in the direction of CGI fish.
Even the marauding sea monsters are overshadowed by a tedious tale of corporate greed for most the runtime, which only further amplifies the film’s biggest failing: Meg 2 defiantly refuses to play to its strengths.
Extending back to 1975 and Steven Spielberg’s seminal shark movie, Hollywood has nurtured a proud tradition of knowingly trashy animal-attack films.
The creatures on screen, be they fish, bears or dinosaurs, do not even need to be rendered particularly authentically – the effects work here is cartoonishly mediocre – but audiences come to scream in delight as characters are eviscerated by monstrosities of nature.
What is sorely lacking in Wheatley’s toothless sequel is bloody carnage and a sense of fun. It is not violent enough for the horror crowds, but perhaps too abrasive for the whole family to enjoy.
Sergio Peris-Mencheta makes for a forgettable one-note villain, while the film’s nominal female lead, Melissanthi Mahut, so wonderful in Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, is hobbled by a confusing and isolating character arc.
Statham looks tired, or perhaps just bored most of the time, even when somersaulting out of an exploding shark’s mouth on a jet-ski. To his credit, Wu looks happy to be involved, but deserves better treatment from a film that feels compromised at an executive level.
While Meg 2 is not dead in the water – a handful of gags will delight more cine-literate viewers – it lacks any discernible bite.
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