Meg 2: The Trench

Giant sharks chomping on people like they were nothing but a fleshy buffet will never get old, and this movie proves it!

Set five years after the first film, Meg 2: The Trench sees returning protagonist Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) as he yet again gets involved in a series of events that lead to yet another killer shark getting all up in his business. Acting as a kind of environmental crimefighter in the years since his first brush with a megalodon, Jonas has also split his time as a member of the Mana One deep-sea research station helmed by Jiuming Zhang (Wu Jing), brother to Jonas’ first film love Suyin, and uncle to Jonas’ now surrogate daughter, Meiying (Sophia Cai). Soon finding themselves back in the trench that started it all, Jonas and crew discover more than they bargained for, leading to even more deadly “megs” being released on the unsuspecting public and threatening to devour them whole, present company included.

I’m not gonna say this is a good movie, but I sure as hell enjoyed myself while watching it. Clearly given a little more money and a lot more freedom to do whatever they wanted with this sequel, Meg 2’s filmmakers do a lot right when it comes to following through with its highly dumb and entertaining premise and even manage to deliver more PG-13-level thrills and “suspension of disbelief” moments than before — something fans of the original film will be glad to hear. And as with the first one, the always likable Jason Statham does just enough to hold the audience’s attention throughout, making the long stretches of time without sharks tearing someone apart at least somewhat bearable to watch.

Yet for as admittedly fun as this movie is, nearly everything else about it is a practice in biding time until the story gets back to the shark attack parts audiences really came to the theater to see, making it pretty obvious what areas the filmmakers didn’t concern themselves with as much. Sure, the script tries to do something with Jonas/Meiying’s endearing relationship, but with a plot that isn’t super consequential to what’s happening onscreen other than to put people within biting distance of the megs and more than a few scenes slowing the momentum of the movie down in ways that simply bore, Meg 2 should strictly be watched for the shark shenanigans and nothing else.

This one is slightly more satisfying than the original when it comes to its entertaining B-movie vibes, but it still suffers similarly when it comes to telling a story of note. I can’t really complain about the entertainment value of a movie that pits (SPOILERS) a T-Rex and giant squid against a ginormous shark in a battle to the death, but I absolutely will complain about the quality of the film being below average at best. Regardless, I had a blast watching Meg 2: The Trench and would appreciate it if we got another entry in this over-the-top “animals attack” series if only to see what other wild match-ups giant sharks and puny humans can get into.