Meg 2: The Trench

Directed by Ben Wheatley, Meg 2: The Trench follows Jason Statham’s Jonas Taylor as he and several one-dimensional figures find themselves under attack by human and shark villains alike. Filmmaker Wheatley, working from a screenplay by Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber, and Dean Georgaris, kicks Meg 2: The Trench with an often astonishingly underwhelming opening stretch that contains few compelling, attention-grabbing elements, as the movie’s first half has been suffused in a darkness that’s compounded by a surfeit of lackluster characters and several poorly conceived and executed action sequences – with, in terms of the latter, an early (and incoherent) set-piece establishing an arms-length atmosphere of distressing, frustrating incompetence. And while Statham is just as charming and commanding as ever, Meg 2: The Trench remains entirely tiresome right up until it progresses into a comparatively passable (and appreciatively tongue-in-cheek) final third – although this effectiveness of this portion of the proceedings is diminished considerably by an extensive use of low-rent, laughably unconvincing computer-generated special effects. The end result is a mostly lackluster creature feature that’s rarely as exciting or fun as one might’ve anticipated (and hoped), which is a shame, certainly, given the potential of the premise and Statham’s predictably engaging turn.

*1/2 out of ****