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Meg 2: The Trench has a terrific director in genre favorite Ben Wheatley, but does the movie kick the franchise up a notch?

PLOT: When an evil mining operation unearths prehistoric beasts from the ocean’s depths, including multiple megalodons, rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) must suit up to face the return of an old enemy.

REVIEW: 2018’s The Meg overcame middling reviews (including one from yours truly) to become an unlikely global success at the box office. Ben Wheatley, who directed the first Meg, is back behind the camera for this sequel. For those who may not know his work, Wheatley is widely considered one of the UK’s best genre directors, with him having made Kill List, Sightseers, Free Fire, High Rise and – recently – the Netflix remake of Rebecca. This is a different movie for him, because it’s an event film with a large budget. How does it fare compared to the original?

Honestly, it’s a mixed bag. Wheatley adds a bit of camp to the final act where Megs and the other creatures attack the ironically-named “Fun Island,” but the PG-13 rating ensures that it doesn’t get too Grand Guignol. Wheatley and his writers, who are returning from the original, seem to have given in to the idea of making the film quasi-horror. They double down on the action. The film’s original lead, Li Bingbing as Suyin, was killed off due to her difficult home life. Wu Jing’s Jiuming takes over the role of secondary hero for Jason Statham’s Jonas. Statham is now raising Suyin and Jiuming’s daughter (a returning Sophia Kai) as his own. She tags along when Jonas, Jiuming, and the mini-subs are called to investigate the trench, but the whole thing goes wrong. The movie features a few human baddies, including Sienna Guillory as the heartless CEO for an evil corporation who wants to raid a trench in search of priceless minerals. She hires a mercenary team led by the psychotic Montes, who wants revenge for having put Jonas in jail years ago. More bad guys with guns mean that Statham and Wu Jing get to use some martial arts to fight them off, in addition to the CG-animated creatures.

What’s interesting is how the movie is edited. With a few tweaks, you could probably make a version

The meg 2

in which Wu Jing was the main hero and Statham was secondary. The Chinese version is said by some to be longer. One wonders how the final films differ. Wu Jing is an excellent action star, but his English dialogue is so bad that he should have been looped. He is difficult to understand. This isn’t the first time he’s acted in English, with him effective in SPL 2: A Time For Consequences, but in that film, his limited grasp of the language was written into the script. He’s supposed be conversing with ease, but is terribly stiff. Statham plays Statham, with him as invulnerable as ever, but he is having a good time in the lead and has a couple of great one-liners.One issue I had with Meg 2: The Trench

is that the cinematography isn’t as good as in the original. The original film was shot by DP Tom Stern, who is no longer involved in this sequel. It now looks like an ordinary action movie. I saw it on a ludicrous screen format called Screen X, which opened up the aspect ratio in the action scenes without adding anything to the film. It should be more fun with more action, but it’s not. Ben Wheatley has a great reputation as a director but here he is a hired gun and the film lacks the gonzo elements he has brought to his other films. It’s passable but not much else. It would have made a great B-movie if they had leaned more into the carnage, but instead it’s just a generic, action flick, and a disappointing continuation to a franchise that has never been as outrageous.

Entertainment - Media News Watch originally published at Entertainment - Media News Watch