'Meg 2: The Trench' movie review- Too light-weight an actioner for the Statham fan

Still from Meg 2: The Trench

Film: Meg 2: The Trench
Cast: Jason Statham, Jing Wu, Cliff Curtis
Director: Ben Wheatley
Rating: 2/5
Runtime: 116 mins

This sequel to ‘The Meg' a movie that failed to find a mainstream release in India, has original director Jon Turteltaub replaced by English director Ben Wheatley. The change of guard doesn't do much for the enjoyment though. Screenwriters Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber, and Dean Georgaris though, engineer a return to adapt ‘The Trench,' the second novel in science-fiction author Steve Alten's MEG series. Frankly, there was no form to return to!

In ‘Jaws' mode, the story is rather generic and imminently predictable. There are few surprises here and those that creep out of the boring narrative are CGI effected ones that involve Jason Statham confronting the giant creature from the sea.

We're reintroduced to Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham), who has reinvented himself as an eco-vigilante protecting the world's oceans. Soon enough, his team from the Mana One research facility discover a deep sea secret that some mysterious third party is mining for rare Earth metals below the thermocline in the deepest part of the Mariana Trench, where it was previously established that prehistoric flora and fauna still exist. Never let sleeping giants lie is the buzzword here I expect. After an explosion, obviously, the gigantic creature and many more like it, break away from the Mariana Trench and all hell breaks loose as far as humanity is concerned.

Jason Statham has now been relegated to fighting off deep sea creatures and there's really no thrill in that. He is basically on autopilot and there's not much support from the other actors in the fray. The Trench tries hard to go bigger and better, featuring three megalodons along with some more giant squid and dino action, but its all in vain. The campiness upsurge only makes it feel even more fake. The CGI, probably more expensively orchestrated than the first, is not all that effective either. Statham's showdown with The Megs doesn't even feel exciting. That one publicity still with Statham kicking off a Meg says it all I guess.