The Ridiculous Meg 2: The Trench Quickly Gets Lost at Sea
To walk into Meg 2: The Trench and not expect to see a beyond-absurd, physics-defying romp requires three things. First, you cannot have seen the film’s notoriously unhinged predecessor, The Meg. Second, chances are you don’t know what a “Meg” is (a 75-plus-foot shark). And finally, you somehow–probably for the better–aren’t privy to the fact that shark movies have recently become the most ridiculous horror subgenre.
Directed by Ben Wheatley, Meg 2: The Trench earnestly takes on the challenge of being even more brazenly goofy and ludicrous than the first film. The sequel opens with some janky CGI prehistoric fish fighting to the death, and after that, it doesn’t exactly tone down. You’ll see: A lot of Megalodons (obviously), even more lizard-like creatures and at least one giant octopus (which may or may not square off with a helicopter). Just another Tuesday for Jason Statham.
Believe it or not, these computerized fish actually play a role in something that resembles a plot. Indeed, it’s easy to forget that Meg 2 is actually following a story, but it is, and it goes a little something like this: Gruff, foul-mouthed deep sea diver Jonas Taylor (Statham) ventures to the bottom of the Mariana Trench to conduct research on those naughty sharks that everyone is talking about. Along for the ride is his brother-in-law Jiuming Zhang (Wu Jing), and aspiring diver stepdaughter Meiying (Sophia Cai), who sneakily snuck onboard. But when their submersible crashes on the ocean floor, Jonas must lead his crew and family back to safety. Luckily, the sharks decide to cut them a break and they make it back up to the surface unscathed. The end!
Just kidding! In actuality, Meg 2 is a series of unfortunate events that is so non-stop that it will exhaust even the biggest action enthusiast. There are sharks, duh, but there is also an illegal mining conspiracy, more villains than you can count on one hand, shoot-outs, jet ski chases, homemade bombs and, really, that’s just scratching the surface. The ludicrousness of Meg 2 isn’t just limited to its over-the-top action sequences. The film also does very little to adhere to reality. I’m no scientist, but I have a feeling that you can’t simply waltz out of a 25,000-foot-deep submarine.