This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.
I don’t hide the fact that I love sharks. Jaws is my favorite horror movie and I have a hammerhead tatted on my arm. I unironically loved The Meg when it came out and I had some hype for the sequel, aptly named Meg 2: The Trench.
If you saw the trailers, the selling point of Meg 2: The Trench is more creatures. More megs, a kraken, and some prehistoric dinosaurs live in the trench. Honestly, that was all I needed for the movie. The creature designs weren’t as good as the first, but they were still leaps and bounds better than most creature features.
All I wanted to watch was a bunch of megs and monsters eat a bunch of people and that’s what I got. The movie ups the cast and body count from the original and it was incredible. It wasn’t just people getting eaten either, there were a few characters who died in more memorable ways that actually had me tense and a little sad.
As for the story, I was honestly not a fan. Now let’s call a spade a spade: no one will be watching Meg 2: The Trench for the story. But from the get-go, it was clear the movie would go in more of a human vs. human story with the monsters as more of secondary antagonists. And it was the wrong choice.
You have three Megs and a damn Kraken, I’m sorry I don’t care about a capitalist and her mercenaries “sabotaging” our protagonists. Although, it did give us the opportunity to watch Jason Statham perform a combo with a Meg, which was a highlight.
The writing was a bit rough as well as it felt like the movie had to spell everything out for us. Outside of one-liners, our characters were just stating what they were seeing and what could happen. Speaking of characters, only Cliff Curtis, Paige Kennedy, and Shuya Sophia Cai return. I liked their characters a lot in The Meg, and they picked up right where they left off. Kennedy in particular had some of the funnier lines of the entire movie. Newcomers Wu Jing and Melissanthi Mahut fit in with the team chemistry but don’t really stand out.
Final Thoughts
Yes, Meg 2: The Trench is dumb. There are a lot of corny action lines and hefty plot holes. The plot having a mustache-twirling villain whose motivation is just “money” is lame for this type of movie. Most people probably won’t be interested in this. But God dammit it has big sharks. This movie was still fun and looked pretty good as well. I’m glad I got my shark fix in. I wanted a fun movie about sharks wreaking havoc and I got it.
