The long-awaited sequel to 2018’s The Meg just had its summer premiere. Based on The Trench, the second book in Steven Alten’s popular sci-fi series, the movie directed by Ben Wheatley features Jason Statham reprising his role as the prehistoric shark fighter / deep sea search and rescuer, Jonas Taylor.
Where can you watch Meg 2: The Trench in the UAE?
Meg 2: The Trench is currently playing in cinemas across the UAE, such as VOX Cinema and Reel Cinemas. It might be some time before it hits streaming services.
Meg 2: The Trench Review
- Jason Statham
- Good action sequences
- Fun CGI
- Boring plot
- Not enough screen time for the megs
- Two-dimensional characters
Five years after he defeated two Megalodons in the first movie, Jonas Taylor is spending his days in fun action sequences putting a stop to environmental crimes. He’s also raising Meiying Zhang (Shuya Sophia Cai) after her mother’s tragic demise in The Meg. Meiying’s uncle Jiuming has taken his sister’s place at Mana One and he’s even studying and training a meg found as a baby. But the captive prehistoric creature is starting to act a bit strange (it might have something to do with being raised in captivity by scientists).
When Jiuming and Jonas go on a submersible trip to the Trench, they uncover an illegal mining operation and the two Megalodons whose underwater home was disturbed by it. The fault lies primarily with Montes (Sergio Peris-Mencheta), a mercenary who has a personal vendetta against Jonas for sending him to prison years ago.
Now our heroes, along with the other survivors from the first film, Mac (Cliff Curtis) and DJ (Page Kennedy), must stop Montes’s plans and find a way to save the holiday-makers at a nearby beach resort unironically named Fun Island.
An underwhelming monster movie
The plot is predictable, and the character development is virtually nonexistent. As an antagonist, Montes is little more than a caricature of a Bond villain, while Jonas is the same perfect protagonist he was in the first movie. There’s very little depth to any of the other characters, which makes most of the dialogue rather dull.
Despite the stellar cast, they don’t get enough to work with, and it seems the writers tried adding too many serious themes to what’s ultimately a B monster movie about prehistoric sharks.
For a film promising bigger megalodons, it doesn’t quite deliver until the last act. Most of the movie has the characters arguing with each other and secretly scheming without it leading to anything. There are no real stakes at play, and character deaths mean as much as losing a beloved toy. The final 30 minutes are the wondrous B-movie Meg 2 could have been, but by that point, it’s too little too late.
Meg 2: The Trench has all the hallmarks of a sequel; There’s more CGI, bigger monsters, and a lot less plot. It’s not as fun as it could have been, and most of the good scenes were already in the trailer. There are, however, a couple of hilarious action sequences of Jason Statham doing what he does best and enough one-liners to get at least a smile out of the audience. This isn’t a good movie, but it’s entertaining enough.
What are other critics saying about Haunted Mansion (Video Reviews):
3C Films enjoyed the visuals and the special effects but wasn’t too keen on the subplots and the human villains introduced in the film.
Austin Burke thought most of the film, aside from the final act, was quite boring.
IGN gave the film a scathing review, describing it as a “terrible megalodon-sized blunder.”
