Maybe Shark

Before you watch Meg 2 : The Trench you need to ask yourself one question, do I like giant sharks tearing stuff up? If the answer is yes then this might not be the film for you.

The first Meg film was something of a sleeper hit, suggesting people quite like watching giant sharks. The marketing for this film suggests the studio know people quite like giant sharks but they don't seem to have passed that information along to the people actually making the film since, after a brief introduction, the megs (and the cool giant octopus from the trailer) are mostly relagated to final part of the movie.

Instead what you get is a series of bland, human focused, action set pieces. There's some dimly lit plodding through the titular trench, like a less good version of 2020's Underwater. Then there's some guys with guns running around a research station like a really crap Die Hard. Even the creature focused final act focuses as much on some dog sized land lizards (evolution has left them with legs despite millions of years confined to life underwater) giving the impression of a lame Jurassic Park.

To be fair Jason Statham at least looks like he is having fun, especially when he gets to play around on jetski. He is joined by Wu Jing (basically the Chinese Jason Statgam) who is also enjoying himself despite the limited script. In fact all the cast do pretty well with what they are given.

With the previous film taking a large bite out if the Chinese box office, The Trench doubles down on appealing to the same market. In addition to the casting the story is very China friendly, the bad guys are comically evil capitalists and while The Stath gets to kick ass it's teamwork that ultimately wins the day. Some people seem to really hate it when a big movie aims for an audience outside North America but personally I enjoy the slightly different flavour and it certainly is not the main issue here. That remains the lack of OTT fun.

The Meg 2 is in on its own joke it just doesn't tell it loud enough.

5 paddling puppies out of 10

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