IR Film Review: MEG 2 - THE TRENCH [Warner Bros]
The aspect of "The Meg" is based on the necessity of messing with the modern world through creatures from before humanity. While "Meg 2: The Trench" panders a bit less in its obviousness but also in its financing, the melodrama and by extension, bad writing and relationship structures tend to bog the film down despite an middling interesting mid-tier descent into the trench. The reality is that this story had been done in trenches and underwater in many ways from "The Core" to "The Abyss" to "Leviathan" to recently with "Underwater". All of those films do it better than "Meg 2" and with less tangible cringing. Jason Statham does what he can but his character Jonas is doing the exact thing as before (though this time he puts his daughter first). Like "Leviathan" or "Deep Star Six" there is the whole essence of greed and doing something just because you can.
The action quotient is upped but the main baddie beyond the MEGs is explained very little. The pre-credits sequence does actually the most exposition. The most dynamic scene with the most at stake requires choice but, in many ways, rips off "The Abyss" and not very well. Another whole sequence (again in the Trench) seems almost completely lifted (in a way) from "Temple Of Doom". The question becomes one of choice and making the audience feel for the characters, which is minimal and fleeting. As a guilty pleasure, the action has that bombastic feeling (though empty) but even as the film moves towards the end (with a similar beach filled resort ready for demolishment) the geography of the actual space is so off, it is not funny. The ending was filmed in Phuket, Thailand but is not really used to its best possibility. As a result, "Meg 2: The Trench" is worth watching mostly for the trench bit but most of the that is, of course, (again) derivative. The movie fixes what was an issue to a point with the first film but creates others resulting in a would-be meandering mess that wants to be something big but comes off more as big budget on the C List. D
By Tim Wassberg
