Jason Statham in Meg 2: The Trench | Credit: Warner Bros.

Our favorite deep sea adventurer is back with a team of scientists to save the world from even more Megs (aka giant, prehistoric sharks).

I quite enjoyed the first film. It’s silly, action-packed, and utterly ridiculous, and I had a great time watching it. It was the light-hearted action thriller that I was looking for. Plus, watching Jason Statham battle a giant CGI shark is a good time. What more could you want?

Sadly, the second film doesn’t hold a candle to the first. They really should’ve stopped with one. Why don’t people ever quit while they’re ahead?

Meg 2: The Trench is an example of a good premise squandered by a poorly executed story. Instead of sticking with the simple story that we want (Jason Statham battling a giant CGI shark), they tried to get too clever.

The first half of the film isn’t all that engaging for a number of reasons. First, there’s a lot of exposition; people are just talking about Megs and dangers and things. While there is some action, it can be difficult to see because of how it’s filmed. Finally, there are some twists and turns in the middle of the field that don’t work very well.

Thankfully, in the second half of the film, they return to what we watch these Meg movies for: Jason Statham battling a giant CGI shark.

While I’m on this topic, let’s also talk about the CGI in this film. It’s pretty awful. The film opens during the time of the dinosaurs, and it looks bad. During that opening scene, we see a number of different creatures, and the only one that looks decent, in my opinion, is the T-Rex. Maybe I have unrealistic expectations, but if you’re going to open a film this way, wouldn’t you want to make it look good?

That opening sets the bar for what is a pretty disappointing movie.

I’m going to talk about some of the other things that didn’t work well in this film, which means that I’m going to spoil some elements of the plot. But, honestly, Meg 2: The Trench isn’t a very good movie, so I don’t think it’s the end of the world if some of these things are spoiled.

Still, if you don’t want any part of the plot ruined, please don’t keep reading.

Early on in the film, everything starts to go wrong for our researcher/explorers. They end up suffering a number of casualties during what was supposed to be a “routine” dive. As they are troubleshooting and trying to survive, it’s revealed that they aren’t just suffering from bad luck, but someone has sabotaged them.

About halfway through the film, it is revealed which member of the team betrayed everyone. This is a nice idea, but I don’t think it’s executed all that well.

Part of the problem with this dramatic twist is that we don’t know many of the characters who are now on the team. This research team has had a lot of turnover since we last left them, and the film doesn’t do much to help us get to know these new characters. So, when it’s revealed that Jess (Skyler Samuels) has betrayed everyone, it doesn’t land as well as it could have. Honestly, I didn’t even remember the character’s name by the time I sat down to write this — she’s not that memorable.

Of course, it’s heartbreaking on a human level to watch members of the crew perish (some in very traumatic ways), but we don’t have a deep emotional connection with any of them. We also don’t know the traitor, so her betrayal of her team doesn’t cut as deeply.

We also meet a rich woman, Driscoll (Sienna Guillory), who is helping fund the research the team is engaged in. At first, she seems like a philanthropist who appreciates research and feels strongly about the oceans. Of course, this is not the case.

It turns out that Driscoll is also funding missions to the bottom of the ocean to extract minerals in order to enrich herself. She has no regard for the ocean or even the people she has sent down there. Instead, when she’s about to be found out, she instructs Jess to leave the remaining crew to die. The film does a great job illustrating just how terrible of a person she is.

Meg 2: The Trench continues the “eat the rich” theme from The Meg, but I feel like it’s executed more poorly than it did in the first film. To me, Driscoll had a lot of potential as a character. She had taken the time to set up a really interesting operation funding research and then stealing it to enrich herself. But her demise doesn’t seem to match the level of intelligence I think she possesses. Though it does speak to her hubris, so I guess that is in line.

In the end, I wanted a more intelligent end for her. While it was satisfying to see her get ripped to shreds by a dinosaur, I wanted a bit more. I guess sometimes the “eat the rich” theme can be a little too on the nose for me.

Now let’s talk about some of the things that I think this film does well.

One theme that pops up in Meg 2: The Trench that I really appreciated is how we process grief. Jonas (Jason Statham) and Jing Wu (Jiuming Zhang) are mourning the death of Suyin (Bingbing Li). Throughout the film, the two men make increasingly risky decisions. While they both have engaged in risky behaviors in the past, this is another level.

Both of them are dealing with the tragic loss of someone they love, and it’s showing up in their work. The film doesn’t explore this theme very deeply, but I do appreciate that there are nods to this. I think that’s such an interesting way to get into the mind of these two men.

This film also does a great job of giving DJ (Page Kennedy) a satisfying character arc. In the first film, he’s a lot of fun, but he’s not super helpful in actually defeating the Meg. He also doesn’t know how to swim in that film (a nod to structural racism, perhaps?), which causes real problems when the team is stranded in the ocean.

But DJ is a smart individual and learns from his past. Between the two films, he learns how to swim, fight, and fire a gun. He comes prepared in case they find themselves in the midst of another terrifying adventure and ends up saving the day.

I love that DJ gets this particular arc. He continues to provide comedic relief, but we also see him learning from the previous film and coming prepared for the dangerous work he has involved himself in.

But the best part of the entire film is when Jason Statham ends up jousting some sharks. It’s one of the most ridiculous things that I’ve seen in a movie lately, but it’s a ton of fun. And I had no trouble believing that he could actually defeat these sharks in that way.

It’s nice to see that the team behind Meg 2: The Trench finally remembered what we loved most about the first movie and gave us loads of that in the last forty minutes or so.

If they make a third film, I would like to suggest a simpler plot and more Jason Statham battling giant CGI sharks. We don’t need much more than that.

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