Now, odds are if you’re entertaining the idea of watching Meg 2: The Trench you’re able to suspend disbelief quite a bit when watching movies. Odds are also high that you watched the original Meg in 2018 and sort of know what to expect on that front. Well, I’m here to tell you that take whatever amount of disbelief you thought you’d have to suspend and quadruple it! There, now you’re prepared to enter the world of Meg 2: The Trench.
I know what you’re thinking, “Wait a minute, this is Jason Statham taking on a prehistoric shark once again, right? How serious did you think I was going to take this movie?” And that’s a fair point; however, there are some absolutely ridiculous and, well, let’s just say flat out impossible scenarios that take place early on in the movie that you really just have to accept having happened and throw all logic out the window. Yes, ridiculous and illogical even in a movie where Jason Statham is taking on prehistoric sharks.
Now, I really enjoyed Meg for the reasons stated above. If you’re going to a movie like this then you’re going to see Jason Statham hopefully roundhouse kick a giant shark in the face. That’s the level of believability I enter these movies with, but let’s get right into what will boggle the mind in this one before we get to the fun we all signed up for. Meg 2: The Trench takes place five years after the first film, and we’ve got a mix of new and familiar faces. Out of the gate we’ve Jonas Taylor (Statham) stowing away on a giant shipping freighter that is dumping toxic waste into the ocean. Jonas has been gathering evidence on those committing environmental crimes, and that’s what he’s doing here – before he’s noticed and must take out half the crew Statham style.
Jonas is also still working with the crew on Mana One, which is now being led by Jiuming Zhang (Jing Wu), who has acquired his father’s company. His father being Zhang from the first film, and the reason it wasn’t passed on to Suyin from the first film is because she’s also dead at this point in the story. It’s never revealed how or when she died, which is both a good and a bad thing. The good in it is that it can be annoying when characters talk about something that feels forced in order to get the audience up to date; and the bad in that there’s an extremely easy point to fit it in here naturally, when Suyin’s daughter, Meiying (Sophia Cal) says she wants to go on a dive with Jonas. She could’ve simply said something along the lines of, “You can’t always be afraid what happened to mom will happen to me,” or something along those lines, indicating a diving accident. That’s a generic example, but that was a moment it could’ve fit in naturally and allowed the audience to know what ended the life of one of the main protagonists of the first movie.
Okay, moving on! Also of note, Jiuming has a…I don’t want to say pet megalodon, but it kind of is. He has his own meg named Haiqi that they rescued as a pup and it’s grown and been studied in captivity since then. After a charity event, Jiuming, Jonas, Mac (Cliff Curtis), and Meiying all head to Mana One to further explore and map out the trench below the Marianas Trench, as they’ve continued to do over the past five years – and Haiqi also escapes the enclosure thanks to a perfectly sized underwater duct that leads right into the ocean. “How is that possible?” Jiuming asks, when he finds out Haiqi escaped captivity. Well, I’m just spit balling, but it probably had something to do with the meg-sized hole you built into the wall.
All of this is pretty standard fare for the set-up to a monster movie, so as silly as some of the above sounds, it’s all good and forgivable enough. Where that disbelief that needs the extra suspension that I mentioned earlier on comes next, as the Mana One crew head down into the Trench on a standard expedition. After the two crews break through the thermocline and enter the dangerous waters below (in much more advanced tech than they did in the previous film) they notice that Haiqi has followed them and is joining a group of megs that include a massive Alpha Male, and a smaller beta male. They decide to pursue the trio into uncharted waters and realize that these usually solo hunters have gathered to mate.
The next part is where things get ridiculous, as the dive team realizes that there’s an entire mining facility in these uncharted waters. Yes, someone else has piggybacked off of Mana One’s research and began mining priceless minerals from the trench floor. While it’s understandable that the Mana One team had been hesitant to rush into the unknown waters, it’s flat-out impossible that another company could build an enormous base of operations this far down without anyone noticing. Like, it’s a fully functional mining facility that has people actively mining in the trench and even with a mole on Mana One (which is realized right away, so no fret of a spoiler) it’s just…there’s no way that this could happen.
That’s where I say just let it go. If you get hung up on that part then you won’t enjoy the second half of the film where the much more over-the-top, completely insane action-packed creature stuff happens. So there’s an impossible to explain mining facility further underwater than anyone has ever explored and nobody noticed it being built under their noses. So what? We’ve still got Jason Statham hunting down prehistoric sharks on a jet ski and isn’t that really what we all signed up for?
Much like its predecessor, Meg 2: The Trench begins taking itself somewhat seriously to set the foundation for the story ahead. The tone of the first half of the movie is a lot darker, with a scarier vibe to it as the two crews must walk from their destroyed submarines to the mining facility. Don’t worry, they have newly advanced diving suits that make this possible, and that again is fine! I have nothing against that in this type of movie as that only calls for a normal level of belief suspension. Plus, it leads to a fun scenario where the team actually have to walk through these dangerous waters full of unknown creatures that want to eat them!
So there’s tension and popcorn level scares to be had while we’re in the trench. There are stakes where it feels like the lives of those down below matter and we want to see them get out alive. Once we leave the trench and head back to Mana One and an adjacent party island for the second half of the film, that’s where the writers and director Ben Wheatley just said, “Okay, time to have a bunch of redshirt characters get eaten and disposed of in every scenario we can think of, and let’s up the comedy and witty banter tenfold,” and that’s where the truly outrageous fun begins!
I can understand on certain levels why Meg 2: The Trench was viewed poorly by critics, as the story is fairly convoluted and disjointed to get to where we get to; however, is it wrong that I’m fairly okay with that? Would I have preferred something a bit more straight-forward that would’ve accomplished the same? Sure. But that being said, I still enjoyed the dark and suspenseful first half enough for how long it lasted, and I loved the absurdity of the final half where the objective seemed to be, “How insane do you want things to get?” and the response was just, “Yes.” In the end the best way I can phrase it is that this is Jason Statham Vs. Prehistoric Sharks Part II, and how can you not recommend it when you put it like that?
Overall Movie Score: 3/5
4K Blu-ray Video and Audio Review:
The 4K Dolby Vision/HDR transfer here is top notch and pushes the film to its visual limits in all the best ways possible. The first half of the movie is quite dark, with the majority of it taking place at night, underwater, or within a dimly lit mining facility. All of these scenes come through with beautiful clarity on this 4K release, with the creatures appearing out of the darkness in perfect fashion, instead of out of a hard to make out, muddier area. The details pop on all fronts here and make it easy to watch, and then when we move back up to the surface for the second half we get vibrant, sharp colours, rich blues in the sky and waters, and just fantastic details on all fronts. Just a great looking creature feature!
On the audio side we’ve got an even stronger delivery, with a Dolby Atmos mix that comes at the viewer from all angles – much like the monsters in the movie. Yes, we’ll hear partygoers to the left and the right (just before they’re swallowed whole) and there’ll be monsters darting side to side, or noises creaking down below. There’s just a lot going on in every given scenario and the mix just comes through wonderfully, elevating the home viewing experience in all the best ways.
Special Features:
The Making of Meg 2: The Trench – We’ve got a 13-minute feature here that’s done in a quick-paced fashion to cover the most amount of ground in the least amount of features. There are a number of behind-the-scene bits here, and we hear from Wheatley, his coming on board and how he spent years planning the movie visually with storyboards and CGI before filming even began. There’s also a fun moment where he says the script says something along the lines of, “And now we see action and stunts like we’ve never seen before!” He laughed and said, “Gee, thanks writers,” but also said that it was freeing and allowed him to expand creatively with ideas to use. It’s a fun watch, but they could’ve broken some of these bits into separate features and gone into greater depth, which would’ve been nice.
Up From the Depths: Even More Beasts – This featurette is just under 10-minutes and we touch on the familiar and fresh creatures used in Meg 2. It’s a fun and fast featurette that’s worth watching.
Disclaimer: A review copy of this Blu-ray was sent to me to cover in honest and truthful fashion.
Warner Bros. Pictures Presents Meg 2: The Trench. Directed by: Ben Wheatley. Written by: Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber, Dean Georgaris. Starring: Jason Statham, Jing Wu, Cliff Curtis, Sophia Cal, Page Kennedy, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Skyler Samuels, Melissanthi Mahut, Whoopie Van Raam, Kiran Sonia Sawar, Felix Mayr, Sienna Guillory. Running time: 116 Minutes. Rating: 14A. Released on 4K Blu-ray: Oct. 24, 2023.
About Brendan Campbell
