Meg 2: The Trench

The Trench rides on a similar (CGI) wave as the first one, which offered quite brisk action entertainment. While the first film featured only an overgrown and hungry shark, the second also features a giant octopus - as if they were ironically poking fun at the "iconic" Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus. As in the case of the first one, you must not expect anything meaningful; you are once again treated to a few physical mindfucks, but also to the coveted action, which, on the whole, is not boring. The underwater sequences evoked Underwater had decent drive. Meg 2: The Trench is an inherently silly film for the severely undemanding viewer for just one viewing, but it is fully aware of it. (08/07/2023)

Jason Statham takes on the ruler of the primordial oceans for the second time. And although Meg 2 is more B-ish and less serious than the first, it's unfortunately not much better. The main problem lies in trying to cram in as many themes, ideas, digressions and horseshit that go nowhere, resulting in a film that is cluttered and at times almost tiresome. And the decent finale is spoiled by childish humour. Even in the context of summer crap, the second Meg is mediocre at best. (08/03/2023)

Meg 2 is for me a weaker sequel to the more entertaining first film. Ben Wheatley wasn't the best choice to direct. This controversial director of slowburns and weird indies couldn't bring any spark to an entertaining shark blockbuster. Jason Statham is still likeable and Wu Jing is always a pleasure to see (too bad he didn't get a fight), the rest of the characters don't impress at all. Visually it's ok (the CGI was occasionally jarring, but in a digestible form), but the atmosphere is completely missing, I felt it's not even as suspenseful as the first one (which had countless cool jump-scares too). The humour is not good (in the first one the black guy talking was hilarious), it was a bit drier. It's nice that there are new monsters (the octopus could have been given more space and they definitely could have added more animals from the underwater world), the Megs are fine but I felt like they weren't on the scene as often as I would have liked. The film unnecessarily dwells on the human villains, which no one is curious about. The first half in the trench is fine, but once it moves into the second half the fun drops off, you could definitely feel that Wheatley is not able to make an entertaining film off rails. It's watchable, but a tad weaker than the more entertaining first film. 55% (08/27/2023)

This was a disaster! If Jason Statham hadn't taken the lead role, this could have easily been another entry from the Asylum film studio. What was this? It was truly painful to watch. Don't get me wrong, the first one wasn't exactly a masterpiece, but at least I didn't feel like I was bleeding from all my bodily orifices while watching it. The number of inconsistencies and absurdities in one place was something I hadn't seen in a long time. The first half, set at a 7.5 km depth, really tested my patience (I had to laugh out loud... I really want that stuff that was being sold on set; it must have been a strong concoction). The action scenes were terribly shot; the cuts gave me a headache, and you couldn't see anything. The CGI was also subpar. One could at least hope that things would improve when the story moved to the beach. But no... it actually got worse :D. The ending with the squid and the trio of giant megs was the final straw. If it weren't for Statham, I’d probably give it a Boo! rating. For me, it’s a 2.5/10. (09/29/2023)

Until you look into the dark with a flashlight and walk on the ocean floor, I remembered the recent and forgotten Underwater and wondered why it does not add to the number of attractions and exaggeration. And then Jason Statham activates his cheats and brings an even bigger fireworks display than I dared to hope for. The confessed loving approach to B-movies, which drives the main character to Superman-like abilities, may not be possible to overcome, and trying to do so on a similar scale may also be a bit of a shame. (08/12/2023)