Meg 2: The Trench

The green credentials of Meg 2 are established right from the start with Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) on a mission to uncover illegal dumping at sea that gets him into a fight, dives into the ocean and picked up. More later on when on a mission to the depths he and his team discover a mining rig up to now good. This envi goodness is all somewhat trashed later on with very ungreen beach tourism.

But before the viewer gets to all that there’s the set up that has a Meg in captivity, being tested for control by an international team of scientists, plus precocious daughter. Going on a deep-sea research dive in submersibles, the teams break thorough the barrier that keeps the Megs away from the upper part of the ocean only to find that there’s an illegal mining operation there. After a few fights, it explodes and opens up a rift in the barrier letting a few Megs and other nasty creatures through.

That leads the film to Fun Island where the drinks are free and there’s plenty of people in the sea to act as Meg munchies. There’s a whole lot of plotting about mineral extraction, big business, greed and traitors within science teams, that frankly nobody cares about the when there’s the potential for a beach bloodbath.

And that is one of the problems with Meg 2: that it is such a bloodless affair when people are attacked by huge Megs with loads of razor-sharp teeth at sea, while those inland are chased and chomped by lizard type creatures at home as much on land as the sea. The expectation is Piranha 3D (2010) gore, not a chance. But it’s also bloodless in that is so anodyne that there is real lack of ferocity or passion about any of it.

It falls simply into goodies and baddies with the accompanying cliches. You get the feeling that director Ben Wheatley, and the writers have knowingly plundered the likes of The Abyss, Jaws, the SYFY Channel's cheapo monster mash-up movies, which do feature an awful lot sharks and bizarrely The A-Team when they start going all DIY to make weapons.

The script flits about with broad humour, evil relish while trying to graft an emotional core between some of the characters but never really settles on anything, though the actors are having a good time with it all. Oh, and a dog is saved.

Meg 2: The Trench is out in cinemas on 4 July 2023.