A Brief History
On August 17, 2023, we went and saw Meg 2: The Trench in 3D (RealD) as big monsters certainly deserve a big screen! We strongly recommend seeing such epic flicks on the big screen to get the entire movie experience from the film. To kill the suspense, yes, we liked the movie.
Digging Deeper
Despite criticism from reviewers picking the movie apart, you must remember, the film is not a documentary. Based on the 1999 novel, The Trench, by Steve Allen, you have to have a willful suspension of disbelief such as with movies like Godzilla or King Kong in order to enjoy it. (Note: There are 7 of these Meg novels by Steve Allen.)
Lots of great cinematography and excellent special effects, the movie is big monster eye candy. Yes, the African American character, DJ, played by Page Kennedy, does have some painfully stereotypical lines and some stabs at comic relief, but not so much that you get too distracted. Also, a major monster factor is a rather large number of some kind of amphibious dinosaur holdout that despite not having gills and retaining their regular legs and land based shape, managed to survive for millions of years at an impossibly deep part of the ocean, only to frolic on land as if they never left terra firma.
Critics also complain about characters being inconsistent and at times acting illogically. Well guess what? That is what people do! For crying out loud, just enjoy the movie!
Another criticism we do not understand is that the movie gets somehow “boring” in the middle. Our observation is that the plot moves right along with either high tension or manic action just about all the time. Jason Statham is back as Jonas Taylor, deep sea diver and environmentalist with the skills of a Navy Seal, James Bond and McGyver rolled into one. Statham is personable and believable as an action hero and virtually ideal for his role in the movie. The rest of the cast is well chosen, with a decided nod to the Chinese movie market, incorporating Chinese characters and Chinese language.
The film is just under two hours long and cost about $130 million to make and has already grossed double that amount and then some. While not a spectacular financial success, the film is not about to lose any money. Rated PG to reach the maximum audience, we think some R Rated level gore would have contributed to our enjoyment of a movie about monsters killing people.
While we prefer to avoid spoilers, we can say that the “Kraken,” of whatever giant Octopus type monster featured in the movie does not get the epic showdown with the giant Shark, or Megalodon, that the trailer implies, although three is indeed a showdown, just not as long and drawn out as some critics seem to prefer.
Released in the United States on August 4,2023, the movie has already been out for 2 weeks and been reviewed numerous times, which is why so much of our review is discussing the criticisms of other reviewers. Seriously, the movie is fun entertainment and quite appropriate for the genre. Lots of eye candy and some really, really, big sharks!
Once again, we strongly urge movie lovers to see the film on the big screen while you still can to get the maximum entertainment value from the blockbuster monster/action movie. We think most people will enjoy the movie, and if you liked the first film, The Meg (2018), you are virtually guaranteed to enjoy this sequel. Enjoy!
Question for students (and subscribers): What is your favorite shark related movie? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Allen, Steve. MEG: A Novel of Deep Terror. Forge Books, 2022.
Allen, Steve. The Trench: MEG 2. Pinnacle Books, 2019.
The featured image in this article, a scaled-down, low-resolution image of poster, is used in an article that provides critical commentary on the film in question, not solely for illustration on an educational website with servers hosted in the United States, qualifies as fair use under the copyright law of the United States.
