Meg 2: The Trench

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I'm not entirely sure where it all started, but when it comes to the whole "bad shark movie" trend (shark-related movies that are made purposefully to be "so bad they're good"), I never really fell into it, with a couple of exceptions here and there. We all have some trend, or several, that we don't fall into along with everyone else. Sharks have always been one of those that applied to me. So when a movie comes along like this, it can be a challenge to review, as it's OK for those who are into it. But for me, it's mildly fun at best.

To briefly recap the first film, we first met Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham), a pro rescue diver who is hired by Zhang (Winston Chao) and Mac (Cliff Curtis), a couple of oceanographers, studying the deeper levels of the Marianas Trench, to perform a rescue mission for a submersible that was attacked by a Megalodon (a giant shark), and the only part anyone cares about is the fun concept of Jason Statham fighting a massive shark, despite a surprising lack of shark imagery within the film. It was okay, at best, and spoiler alert, this isn't better.

Jonas is now helping the underwater research facility "Mana One," exploring the Mariana Trench further and providing the muscle behind fighting various environmental crimes. He also takes on the responsibility of looking after Meiying (Shuya Sophia Cai), the daughter of one of the previous film's casualties. Meanwhile, Meiying's uncle, Jiuming Zhang (Jing Wu), who has since acquired his father's company, studies a female Meg named Haiqi, whom he found and trained as a pup, and this is where we get the idea that maybe it's "misunderstood." There's a sort of "Free Willy"-like connection there.

Jonas feels pretty iffy about this supposed "connection," unable to trust the Megoladon for obvious reasons, especially when she starts acting erratically. Jonas and Jiuming take a submersible (with Meiying stowing away) into the trench to see what may be bothering Haiqi. As it turns out, Haigi's bothered by an illegal underwater mining operation being led by one of Jonas' old perpetrators (who he imprisoned earlier), a mercenary named Montes (Sergio Peris-Mencheta), who is there to mine rare underwater minerals to make a fortune. His mining, however, allows Haigi to escape.

Plot-wise, this turns into a man vs man story as opposed to the man vs nature story we probably expected, and for me, that was a bummer since my biggest complaint about the last film was the lack of sharks. There's still some material here that will fulfill the needs of those looking for a cheesy, corny adventure under the sea, but it's not the simple "Statham vs Shark" film I hoped for. But we get some never-before-seen critters known as "Snappers" and, eventually, a giant octopus, which is hilariously fun once it shows up; the kind of fun that is trying to look very serious, but one can't possibly take it seriously.

For those wondering about who else may have returned from the previous film, there's an essential tag team here made up of survivors Mac and DJ (Page Kennedy), who's meant to be the comedy relief but just about all of his lines feel awkward or forced. He's a touch more annoying than funny. But God bless him. He had what he had to work with, so full blame goes on the writers for trying to make a fast-talking, shall we say, stereotype. That could be an overthought, but that's how I took it.

If you're looking for an awful movie that you can still enjoy somewhat ironically, 'Meg 2' isn't a bad place to look. I fully understand that this is made for people looking for that cheese factor in their lives, and I can't discredit it for delivering that on some level. It is mildly entertaining in all the wrong ways, especially regarding the creatures. But as I said at the top of this review, the shark thing was never my bag. So, while it has a fun factor to it that I can understand for others, this one wasn't necessarily for me, just like its predecessor.

2/5

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