There are career departures, and then there are mysterious forces in the universe conspiring to bring Ben Wheatley aboard THE MEG 2: THE TRENCH. For over a decade, he’s been one of our most idiosyncratic filmmakers, often exploring the dark recesses of the human soul and psyche with an unmistakable, divisive style. Love or hate his work (truth be told, I have both loved and hated it at different times), there’s something undeniable about most of it, and almost none of it suggests he would ever helm a sequel to a movie where Jason Statham battles prehistoric sharks. But this is why we love movies, folks: sometimes they give us something totally unexpected, and, in this case, turn a mercenary endeavor of franchise filmmaking into a more interesting proposition — in theory, at least.
In practice, though, that doesn’t quite bear out. If you were hoping that Wheatley would bring his signature sensibilities to THE MEG 2 and shape it into a surprising, subversive follow-up, you’re likely to be disappointed. For the most part, this feels like the blockbuster machine absorbing a creative voice rather than that creative voice carving a niche groove into the boilerplate. In short, THE MEG 2 is simply more of the same in every respect: there’s more aquatic mayhem, more silliness, more of that nagging feeling that this still isn’t quite the best these movies could be.
Five years after the first film, Jonas Taylor (Statham) has become a jack-of-all-trades. By day, he’s an eco-saboteur who targets companies that destroy the environment. By night, he’s still very much the public face of Mana One, the research facility that continues to explore the Mariana Trench. And he’s the full-time step-father to a now teenaged Meiying (Shuya Sophia Cai) following the death of her mother, Suyin (Li Bingbing). Meiying’s uncle Jiuming (Wu Jing) has assumed control of the company alongside billionaire investor Hillary Driscoll (Sienna Guillory) and has essentially become a co-parent with Jonas, at least when he’s not doing silly shit, like swimming around with the megalodon they’ve captured. Yes, there’s a megalodon in captivity, and, yes, of course, it escapes, but that’s not really the story here.
Instead, all of this throat-clearing is a prelude to our running theme here: more of the same. Like, the exact same: Mana One sends another crew down to explore the trench, only to meet with disaster and get stuck at the bottom following a mysterious explosion. The only wrinkle this time is the discovery of a double secret underwater mining operation that provides an unexpected salvation — if our heroes can navigate the trench on foot, evading multiple megs, other sea monsters, and corporate subterfuge every step of the way.
As all of this unfolded, I couldn’t help but hear a familiar refrain of Joe Bob Briggs echoing in my head: THE MEG 2 has way too much plot getting in the way of the action, so what should be a rollicking thrill ride — a multi-mile spring across the ocean floor involving prehistoric monsters — becomes a leaden affair that’s bogged down by dull exposition and predictable plot-twists, none of them involving the titular beasts. Instead, Wheatley and company go all-in on the trench itself, and it’s a missed opportunity in terms of pacing and action. It’s an especially disappointing whiff considering the film is subtitled THE TRENCH, so it’s kind of like calling your shot at the plate and striking out.
Or maybe it’s more like a foul tip in this case. This stretch of the film isn’t without its moments — someone’s helmet cracks and their head caves in, for one thing — it’s just that it’s mostly a drag. It’s just missing the sort of pacing that would maximize the suspense and excitement you’d expect from the premise, not to mention the kind of action you’d want. A nice sequence that has hour heroes fleeing from a swarm of giant lizards (Wikipedia informs me that these are “Snappers”) is unfortunately just a warm-up for the real conflict: the secret plan being hatched from above by nefarious traitors in the midst of Mana One, which leads to brawls and perilous moral dilemmas down on the ocean floor. Obviously, all of this is reminiscent of the superior UNDERWATER, but it also reminded me of the slew of direct-to-video DEEP BLUE SEA knock-offs that promised underwater schlock but delivered superfluous human drama (coincidentally, one of these was 2002’s MEGALODON). At one point, Jonas fights a henchman in a room full of whirring machinery, including a conveyor belt that feeds into a huge grinder. Conventional wisdom would suggest that said grinder would punctuate this encounter with a gruesome exclamation point; unfortunately, there’s plenty of convention and not enough wisdom to go around, so the grinder is shut down before it can make mincemeat out of anyone, leaving it plenty quiet enough for you to hear Chekhov rolling around in his grave.
Business at least picks up when the film resurfaces with a reprisal of the original film’s rambunctious climax when the megs, the snappers, and a giant octopus descend upon Fun Island, a resort sprawling with tourists. Like its predecessor, this is where THE MEG 2 embraces its unruly potential with the colorful cast of non-disposable characters spitting banter as the creatures spit out the disposable extras. For once, the film’s “more of the same” mantra works in its favor as it deploys jet skis, helicopters, bombs, and a whole bunch of outrageous nonsense to compensate for the belabored setup. The farcical, tongue-in-cheek approach stays just on the right side of the line, and the solid production values keep this from descending into SHARKNADO territory, solidifying my long-standing belief that the SyFy approach to outlandish creature features can work if enough effort is put into them.
If you’re so inclined, consider this extended climax to be the DEEP RISING sequel that was teased but never released. Wheatley indulges the monster mayhem as best he can while coloring inside the PG-13 lines, and he keeps the action moving with breakneck pacing by having the characters effectively put out a series of fires. When one beast is conquered, another rears its ugly head, only to be disposed of in an increasingly ludicrous fashion. Let’s just say that Martin Brody would have to give Jonas Taylor props for ingenuity. In this case, the Fun Island setting is Wheatley calling his shot and lining one just over the fence, so THE MEG 2 lands in the right place. Everyone lets loose and has plenty of time to shine, including returning cast members Cliff Curtis and Page Kennedy, who race to fill up the comic relief quotient. (For the record, Kennedy wins with an obscure JAWS 2 reference that went a long way in helping this sequel capture my heart.)
THE MEG 2 recovers well enough, but not well enough for it to feel like a complete triumph. Much like the first entry, it’s a solidly produced blockbuster that’s fun but insubstantial, which is probably the last thing you’d expect to say about a Ben Wheatley film. Outside of a couple of flourishes — like a clever prologue that establishes the meg at the top of the prehistoric food chain and a positively ghoulish POV shot from within the beast’s maw — Wheatley doesn’t do much that his predecessor Jon Turteltaub didn’t already do in the first one. It’s fine mercenary work, but it leaves you wishing he hadn’t been so content to just mind the shop. Essentially, he leaves THE MEG just as he found it: functional enough but with plenty of room for improvement. Maybe they’ll finally get this completely right in THE MEG 3.
Tags: Ben Wheatley, Brett Gallman, China, Cliff Curtis, Dean Georgaris, Dinosaurs, Erich Hoeber, Haris Zambarloukos, Harry Gregson-Williams, Jason Statham, Jon Hoeber, Jonathan Amos, Kiran Sonia Sawar, Li Bingbing, Melissanthi Mahut, Page Kennedy, Sequels, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Sharks, Sienna Guillory, Skyler Samuels, Sophia Cai, Steve Alten, Wu Jing
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