Meg 2: The Trench - An Even More Over-the-Top Action and Megs to Give us More Thrills

As soon as my wife and I found out about this movie, we decided it was a must-see film. But due to various things, we only got to see it in the weekend and not on weekdays when it was released in theaters. OK, I'll get straight to it then.

Brief Story Line

Few years after the events of the first movie, Jonas (Jason Statham - Wrath of a Man, Mechnic: Resurrection etc) was now working full time at Mana One together with the people he used to work with, Mac (Cliff Curtis - Avatar: The Way of Water, 10,000 BC etc), the engineer DJ (Page Kennedy - The Upshaws TV series etc) and new staff like Jess (Skyler Samuels - Scream Queens TV series etc). The institute was now headed by Zhang Jiuming (Wu Jing - The Wandering Earth II, SPL II etc) and supported by wealthy investor Hillary (Sienna Guillory - Clifford: The Big Red Dog etc). Jonas also became like a father figure to Jiuming's niece Meiying (Sophia Cai) and always very protective of her. 

When Jonas, Jiuming and several other team members including security officer Rigas (Melissanthi Mahut - Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga etc) were doing exploration in the deep sea, they unexpectedly face danger in the form of Megalodons. Things gotten even more dangerous for the whole team with the appearance of Montes (Sergio Peris-Mencheta - Snowfall TV series etc) who had his own motive.

So could Jonas and the rest save themselves? You could find them all in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Well that was really entertaining. My wife and I really enjoyed seeing this movie, especially with the amazing Dolby Atmos sound system which truly added the element of fun. Luckily we still managed to catch the afternoon show with our preferred seats (apparently most studios were already filled up), even if we had to go a little further instead of to our favorite theater near our home.

Anyway, the movie started with brief action and introduction of the new characters. It did not take very long for something exciting to happen and the underwater scenes were surprisingly very well done. Obviously it had to be, since the focus was those enormous Megalodons. What I admired here was the way the intensity was kept at the maximum continuously with some dramatic moments to make it more memorable. In fact, compared to the predecessor, I think this one was more enjoyable especially with more Megs and absolute over the top action which might defy logic but very fun nonetheless. 

I think credit really had to be given to the director Ben Wheatley (Free Fire, Kill List etc) who took over from Jon Turteltaub as he was able to maintain the movie's comedic nature (but not too much) and combined it with the awesome actions. The person whom I thought provided humorous moments was definitely Page Kennedy with his remarks, while Jason Statham was fun to watch. My wife who is very big fan of him obviously enjoyed his characterization. Meanwhile Wu Jing did not get the chance to show his martial arts capabilities. Out of topic a bit, but his English was surprisingly good. The rest of the cast played their roles adequately.

Aside from the action sequence in the deep water, it would not be fun if the megs did not terrorize other areas. There were so many crazy moments here and despite still not being full blown gore, I think the movie makers were great in showing violent stuff within the PG-13 corridor. Yes, this was classified for 13+ in Indonesia as well and I think it should be followed, otherwise young kids might be traumatized with some of the scenes where Megs opening their large mouth eating everything in their path. These were the parts where audience were screaming (my wife definitely one of them as she saw this movie like she was in one of those thrill rides in a theme park).

For a science fiction adventure action movie, this was certainly a fun one. The plot was very standard and the twist was not the blow your mind type. But hey, that was not what we are looking for in this kind of film. It is the type that we just go to the cinema and have fun for around 2 hours. Btw, there was no mid or post end credit scenes and the closing credit was very long with mostly the special effects team who had done good job. Before I forgot, this film was adapted from the novel titled The Trench written by Steve Alten. It was the second book of MEG series with another book released few years after, which could be used as basis to make a third movie (if this is also successful enough). So if you like what you saw in the first movie and you like the premise of Jason Statham fighting against prehistoric creatures, then you do not want to miss this one. My wife and I enjoyed this a lot and would recommend it to audience looking for thrills and do not mind the story/logic.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars