Some films like “Kill List” and “In the Earth” show Ben Wheatley has a personality and a flair for directing, so one would expect more from him in “Meg 2: The Trench.” What I can say is that I hope you are not waiting for “Meg 2” to showcase any of his previous works because, “I can reassure they won’t be coming.” His creativity to make things wonderful was utterly thrown out the window with this movie, just like in his 2020 remake of “Rebecca.” This film brings no excitement until right at the end where he throws in a touch of his creativity, but as for the rest, you might find this the most boring film of the year. The film inexplicably focuses on the evil underwater drilling company rather than the giant shark. It might be amusing in a family setting, but as for me, I just can’t get my teeth into the movie.
Always конструкторские бюро as a winking part of the fun, if any, his best action parts, Jason Statham now looks conspicuously bored as Jonas, the deep sea diver worker of the Zhang Institute, which was the facility that discovered the existence of a megalodon in the first film. The sequel shows that the research facility has even kept one of them in captivity for further study. Jiuming (an inconsistent Wu Jing), the head of the institute, even believes that he can train the megalodon and… no, this is not a shark escape attack movie, although you will wish it was as simple as that.
Instead of concentrating on the runaway meg—who escapes hysterically, easily while the crew is focused on something else—the work of Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber and Dean Georgaris has Jonas and his crew diving into the ocean to the trench which the megalodons have inhabited for centuries. While heading into the low visibility, poorly filmed ocean—and I mean, Wheatley’s solution to recreating underwater photography is turning down the lighting— they find other megalodons, but the true danger is far worse than the megalodons, other humans who are also in the trench, mining it. Yes, Jonas and his crew stumble across an illegal operation in the middle of the ocean, which results in them getting their ships destroyed. One of the most poorly executed in years is the walk on the ocean floor to a facility movement. It felt near real-time.
Most of the fake tension is reserved for the Meiying (Sophia Cai) character, the main creature Jonas tries to keep alive. It wouldn’t even be considered a spoiler that Jonas, Jiuming, Meiying, and some others are eventually shown fleeing back above the surface. Escaping the facility teeming with soldiers for reasons I cared too little to explain. Their destination seems to be a resort named Fun Island, and an almost hour and a half into this disaster of a movie is where “The Trench” shows any sign of life. That’s right, the underwater explosions lifted the temperature containment shield bound to keep things like tourists, a giant octopus, and other sea monsters at bay. It’s way too little and way too late for Wheatley and his team but those are my thoughts.
The last part of “The Trench” is filled with action, but it’s hard to believe that a film is being made to have fun with. What could possibly go wrong when getting Jason Statham to jet-ski and hurl harpoons at massive sharks? Somehow the film manages to chronicle all this without any delight. This film lacks Wheatley’s trademark dark humor or skillful horror. It’s almost as if he got to the portion of pre-production where he decided he couldn’t make it R-rated and just decided to check out completely. Curtis and Kennedy develop a strange buddy-comedy-action vibe later on that almost works. There is a lack of tension—countless people simply perish in Jonas’ world without any means of acknowledgment—and it is painfully obvious to anyone that has seen a movie who will be alive by the last scene.
Obviously, that's not always an issue. When we watch The Meg 2, we can rest easy knowing that Jason Statham will sort everything out. In this instance, it’s more about execution than originality, and perhaps that’s where Wheatley misses the mark. He seems to be one of those people who need some degree of narrative freedom in order to thrive. When he is put into a rigid framework, like in this case, he has no choice but to leave his passion at the door. He seems to just check out and willfully disengage.
Jiuming sends the audience into a frenzy of congratulatory applause with his captivating speech early in the film. One word of wisdom he adds: “A man’s only limit is his imagination.” It’s a real shame the movie that follows has so little of it.