Meg 2: The Trench review – Jason Statham v seamonsters, round two – The Guardian
“A relationship, I believe, is sort of a shark,” says Woody Allen in Annie Corridor. “It has to continuously transfer ahead or it dies.” Ditto franchises. A prologue set within the Cretaceous interval hints that Meg 2: The Trench will exceed the enjoyably cheesy thrills of the 2018 seaborne monster film by going weirder and wilder – a suspicion inspired by the presence of Ben Wheatley (Sightseers, A Discipline in England) as director. In reality, the sequel alternately treads water and splashes round frantically in quest of an id. By no means deciding on whether or not he needs his movie to be Alien, Jaws, Jurassic Park or Sharknado, Wheatley serves up a bouillabaisse of all 4.
Battling a 75ft-long megalodon with an 8ft dorsal fin and 5 rows of tooth is one other type of formidable, remorseless beast: Jason Statham, who returns as shark-hunter and ocean-defender Jonas Taylor however nonetheless hasn’t determined whether or not to play the position with a cockney accent or an American one. Whereas he’s mulling that over, he commandeers a submersible on a analysis journey 25,000ft beneath, solely to seek out the mission gatecrashed by megs and different assorted sea monsters. It’s the multiplicity of threats that scuppers any potential scares: every thing from an enormous squid and velociraptor-like land-dwelling lizards to a double-crossing entrepreneur and a gang of rogue miners depart the meg taking part in second fiddle in its personal movie. Issues have come to a reasonably go when viewers and characters alike see an exploding head as little greater than a minor setback.
Intermittent pleasures embody a figuring out reference to Jaws 2 and a Little Store of Horrors-style shot gazing out from inside an open mouth, in addition to loads of “Hell no!” interjections from the endearing Web page Kennedy as resident tech man, DJ. And the movie retains Statham busy, whether or not he takes to jet-skis for an impromptu midsea jousting event or scrambling alongside a pier because it’s being masticated. His deathless manner with a line studying can nonetheless increase a smile. “Nice – extra megs,” is nobody’s thought of snappy dialogue however his unimpressed cadence lifts it into the realm of the droll.
It’s only a disgrace the movie makes him spend a lot time taking part in dad to a teenage sort-of stepdaughter, Meiying (Sophia Cai). Alongside together with her uncle, Jiuming (Wu Jing), who thinks he can tame a megalodon, they finish the movie as a sitcom trio, suggesting a possible new route for the third instalment. A radical rethink is required, that’s for certain. Anybody for Meg vs M3GAN?
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