"Meg 2: The Trench" a bigger, dumber sequel that's surprisingly dull

Meg 2: The Trench (2023) 

Regardless of your thoughts on 2018’s “The Meg”—it knew what it was as big, silly shark fun for the widest possible audience—we can unanimously agree that “Meg 2: The Trench” is just big, dumb, and far less fun. Apart from the marketing team always killing it with these “Meg” movies, the biggest selling point for this sequel was bringing on director Ben Wheatley who could rebrand and go meaner and more bonkers than the director of “3 Ninjas” and “While You Were Sleeping.” Unfortunately, there’s no sign of this singular filmmaker (or a budget of $129 million) up on that screen with this bummer summer-closer. 

In a Cretaceous Period prologue, a megalodon sets the record straight. She is the top of the food chain, swooping out of the water and chomping down on a T-Rex that’s about to eat a smaller dinosaur. Then Queen’s “Under Pressure” sounds and we’re in for a blast, right? Hello? Jason Statham returns as rescue diving expert Jonas Taylor, who’s reintroduced stowing away on cargo ships and incriminating radioactive waste dumping in the Philippine Sea. In the interim, Jonas’ love interest, Suyin (Li Bingbing), has died, leaving him to play surrogate parent to her now-teenage daughter, Meiying (Sophia Cai). Suyin’s brother Jiuming (Chinese superstar Wu Jing) has also merged his company of Iron Man-type exo-suits with the Mana One oceanic institute. Just like last time, while Mac (Cliff Curtis), DJ (Page Kennedy), and a bunch of new faces stay dry and stare at computer screens, Jonas and Jiuming head another expedition into the trench, only to discover a secret underwater mining facility. The mission gets sabotaged by bad guys, led by greedy double-crossers, leaving our heroes stuck 25,000 feet under the sea. 

That right there is the entire first hour. It’s a ton of draggy setup (and underwater visual murkiness) for not much payoff, while the Megs just swim around as afterthoughts and new aquatic threats have to wait until mining explosions unleash them. Constantly overpromising and underdelivering, it’s as if “Meg 2: The Trench” pretends it’s something more. Even if returning screenwriters Jon Hoeber & Erich Hoeber and Dean Georgaris (adapting Steve Alten’s novel “The Trench” in his “Meg” series) did want us to be interested in a company conspiracy (gasp!) and the cloying human relationships before getting to the shark mayhem, it didn’t have to be this boring. The lame one-liners also needed a major punch-up. Read the full review at GuyAtTheMovies.com

Grade: D +

Warner Bros. released "Meg 2: The Trench" (116 min.) in theaters on August 4, 2023.