The Meg 2: Trench review

The sequel to the 2018 movie, “The Meg”, has turned out to be just an “OK” movie. Despite having high hopes on the new 2023 movie “The Meg 2: Trench” and a promising trailer that came out last May, the movie has barely managed to live up to the movie’s high expectations.

One of the first things that an audience looks for in a movie sequel is the casts. The majority of the cast in the 2023 sequel has remained the same and some are added. One of the recurring main cast members of the movie is Jason Statham. You might have seen Jason Statham in a spin-off movie of the “Fast & Furious” called “ Hobbs and Shaw”. He also participated in different action movies such as “Transporter” movie series, “Wild Card” and “The Expendables” movie series. His experience in the film industry, especially in the action genre, became one of the reasons why this movie had a good thriller and action effect overall. Another cast member that we saw in the first movie is Page Kennedy. Page Kennedy acted in many different genres such as action, comedy, and thriller movies. Kennedy has acted in movies in series like “S.W.A.T.” ,”Rhett & Link’s Buddy System”, “Leprechauns 1 & 2 “ and “ Rush Hour Extras. His character in “the Meg” movies became one of the most iconic characters in the movie. His interpretation of DJ’s character gave the movie a witty, fun, and enjoyable feel to the movie.

“The Meg” which is rated PG-13, is a fictional horror/adventure movie that revolves around Jonas (Jason Statham), a great deep sea diver of the Zhang Institute, discovering the existence of the prehistoric great shark, the Megalodon, in the 2018 film. The 2023 sequel “The Meg 2: Trench” revolves around the researchers of the Zhang Institute encountering multiple threats while exploring the deep depths of the ocean, including a hostile mining operation.The movie sequel reveals that Zhang Jiuming (Wu Jing), the head of the Zhang institute, has decided to keep a megalodon as a subject to further study their behavior and build a connection with it. While a hopeful Jiuming thinks that the megalodon is safe, Jonas’ view on keeping the shark remains unchanged. The thought of all is going well during their dive changes when they encounter an unidentified subject and realize that the Megalodon that is caged in the institute had escaped.

The sequel of the 2018 film, “The Meg”, unfortunately did not live up to the hype expectations that I had for the movie. Personally, I think the movie could have been much more if they focused on the intense shark storyline the first film originally had. Although the movie is supposed to be about the horror of the great shark, it just isn’t. The movie has included some new jurassic-looking creatures like the ‘Kronosaurus’ and Kraken to take part in the storyline which is pretty interesting, but once I saw the creatures in the movie, I immediately thought that the movie feels more like a “Jurassic Park” movie than a Meg movie. I felt like the movie’s plot is shifting into many different topics that the storyline gets a little blurry. In my view, the movie feels like it doesn’t even focus on the shark. In some scenes, the looks of the movie are a little cheesy and tacky. Although the movie had its disappointing qualities, it maintained the witty and fun banter aspect.The sequel has maintained the same thrilling characteristic as the first movie which made the movie a little exciting. Some of the dialogues are a little awkward in some instances but here to say that it made sense in the situation of the scenes and made the movie entertaining. The banters are really fun to watch, especially the character of DJ ( Page Kennedy). His role brought in the lively, playful vibe of the movie. Another aspect that caught my attention was the cinematography. Haris Zambarloukos, the movie’s head cinematographer, has worked on some well known movies with amazing visuals like “Murder on the Orient Express”, “Death on the Nile”, “Cinderella”, and “Thor”. Zambarloukos use of visual angles and effects made the images of the creatures pop out and created a realistic image that made them interesting. The visual angles that Zambarloukos used in the movie emphasized the beautiful scenery of the movie scenes. Also, the light effects on the movie are well balanced and not too distracting in the eyes which is another aspect in the movie that I really liked.

Overall, “The Meg 2: Trench” has been placed on my “Once Movie” list. Although the movie has failed to interpret some of the points of the sequel, it still is entertaining to watch in some aspects. The casts and the cinematography of the movie are a little better, although in my opinion, It is one of the movies that I would probably not repeat watching again. In the end, I will give this movie a 3 out 5.