Meg 2: The Trench (2023)

2 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Groan Shark

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

A tiny improvement over its predecessor, this giant shark sequel sometimes seems to be reveling in its own B-movie-ness, but, unfortunately, it also succumbs to lazy turns of plot and routine action.

Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) and his old pal Mac (Cliff Curtis) are now working with the Zhang Institute, occasionally running off to tangle with eco-terrorists before getting back to the business at hand: giant sharks. The head of the Institute, Jiuming (Wu Jing), has a megalodon in captivity and tries to train it, while Jonas has become the cautious stepfather of little Meiying (Sophia Cai), now fourteen. She wants to go on adventures like Jonas, but he wants to keep her safe.

So, when the crew prepares for a deep-sea dive under the freezing cold thermocline layer, Meiying stows away. On the ocean floor, the team discovers an illegal mining operation, as well as more megs. Even worse, after an explosion traps them, the crew discovers that they have a traitor amongst their number. Jonas must find a way to save the crew and head off the sharks — as well as a new kind of killer amphibian and a giant octopus — before the deadly creatures get to the nearest populated area, a vacation resort called "Fun Island."

On Meg 2: The Trench, the weird, subversive English director Ben Wheatley (Kill List, High Rise, Free Fire, In the Earth) takes over from the safer Jon Turteltaub (who directed the original The Meg), and manages some fun touches, like DJ (Page Kennedy) now being trained and ready for any emergency, or Jonas killing a shark with the blade of a crashed helicopter, or the whole "Fun Island" conceit.

But he's also hamstrung by the built-in PG-13 rating and can only go so far. Moreover, the plot is so mechanical that it manages to rob the movie from any sense of wonder or suspense. For instance, the magic of discovering a new bit of ocean is railroaded in favor of revealing the secret mining operation.

If Steven Spielberg — whose Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park are a direct inspiration on this one — had been in charge, we would at least have had a few minutes to admire beautiful new fish and plant life before the carnage began. Meg 2: The Trench knows no such pacing or finesse. And, like its predecessor, the fake-looking CG visual effects result in fake-looking monsters, now twice as boring as before.

Warner Bros. Home Video's Blu-ray release offers decent picture and sound (5.1 only, no Dolby Atmos), as well as a bonus digital copy. Bonuses include a 13-minute mostly generic "making of" featurette and a second featurette, "Up From the Depths: Even More Beasts," running around 10 minutes, on the new monsters in this sequel. Fans of giant CGI sea monsters will surely enjoy this release.