TL;DR –Well, Meg 2 is an absolutely abysmal film that flounders at almost every stage while it fails at every front of knowing what sort of film it wants to be.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to see this film.

Meg 2 Review –

Well, blast, look, honestly, I didn’t see this coming. I was someone who quite liked the first Meg because it scratched that perfect dumb but fun itch that you can get with over-the-top action films. It wasn’t a perfect film by any stretch of the imagination, but it was still entertaining. So, surely a second attempt at this world will at least be amusing… well, unfortunately not.

So to set the scene, it has been some time since the first film, and Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) has been working for the Oceanic Institute based out of Hainan, China, for Jiuming Zhang (Wu Jing). But on his days off, he clandestinely monitors any shady people who could be harming the environment, such as the cargo shin The Kitty Blue that is illegally dumping radioactive material into the Philippine Sea. But things go amiss when the Meg Haiqi breaks out of their enclosure, and they find that they are not the only humans at the bottom of The Trench.

If you ask the question: “where did this film go wrong?” it is difficult to pinpoint because so much of this film is a mess. Which I am sure was frustrating for all the artists involved with the production, who were clearly trying their best to bring something together, and I have seen them shine in other films before. However, bar maybe one or two slightly interesting action beats and Jason Statham and Wu Jing desperately trying to use their charm to cover for the story, it just never comes together.

 First, the film does not know what it wants to be. Is it a film where our characters must survive in a suddenly hostile area filled with prehistoric creatures like Jurassic Park? Is it a giant monster v monster film like Godzilla vs. Kong? Is it a musing on corporate culture and the evils of Western Capitalism like Avatar: The Way of Water? Is it a moral film about the excesses of money and how it ends badly, like Glass Onion? Is it even just a dumb action film like True Lies? Well, it is trying to be all of those things, and in the end, it becomes none of those things because it does not have the narrative fortitude to be able to pull this off.

At most, what this film becomes is deeply frustrating. For a movie that opens with Queen’s Under Pressure, they seem not to understand how pressure works. Even their internal rules regarding pressure change every five minutes in this world where the bends do not exist, apparently. The megs are bland in their design and look goofy rather than menacing. They also change size from scene to scene. Even in those few moments when the action clicks, it is still presented in a jittery, off-putting way. I am unsure if this is because they went with a shaky-cam stile of action and failed on that or because they were putting together the edit with the best of what they had, but it didn’t work. All of this is not helped by just some absolutely dismal dialogue that permeates the film. Also, if you are just here for the giant shark attack moments, well, they are few and far between.  

I have not read the novel this is based on, so I can’t say if the story issues come from the original work or the adaptation, but the narrative has no substance. Characters walk around with big “I am about to die” labels on their heads, which would have been more evident if they had made them all wear red shirts. The story is full of moments that don’t make sense if you interrogate them for even one moment. How did land animals live deep in the trench for 65 million years, or how did they out-race the megs to the island? Also, why were they heading to the island in the same direction as the megs when we know the megs prey on them? Finally, it is not that the characters in this film have zero sense of life preservation like the captain in Alien: Covenant, but that they make choices that no human alive in this world would make in the situation. For example, and [SPOILERS], one character was escorted back to her helicopter when her group of hired mercenaries were attacked. Then when they heard those same creatures approaching the helicopter, she sent the pilot to investigate instead of doing what 100% of people in the world would do and taking off in the helicopter to safety. In fact, it makes no sense why that character would be on that island to begin with.

In the end, do we recommend Meg 2: The Trench? Absolutely not. It is sadly a mess of a film that can’t commit to what it wants to do. If you wish to watch the megalodons attack things, most of that is in the trailer. But if you want an interesting film or at least just an engaging movie, this is not the one for you. If you liked Meg 2: The Trench, I would recommend to you Troll.  

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you watched Meg 2?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 


Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Meg 2
Directed by – Ben Wheatley
Screenplay by – Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber & Dean Georgaris
Story by – Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber & Dean Georgaris
Based on – The Trench by Steve Alten
Music by – Harry Gregson-Williams
Cinematography by – Haris Zambarloukos
Edited by – Jonathan Amos
Production/Distribution Companies – CMC Pictures, DF Pictures, Di Bonaventura Pictures, Apelles Entertainment, Universal Pictures & Warner Bro Pictures.
Starring – Jason Statham, Wu Jing, Sophia Cai, Page Kennedy, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Skyler Samuels, Cliff Curtis, Sienna Guillory, Melissanthi Mahut, Kiran Sonia Sawar & Felix Mayr
Rating – Australia: M; Canada: PG; Germany: 12; New Zealand: na; United Kingdom: 12A; United States: PG-13