{"id":26804,"date":"2023-08-08T01:29:05","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T08:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=26804"},"modified":"2023-08-08T01:29:05","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T08:29:05","slug":"meg-2-the-trench-is-a-bizarre-hodgepodge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=26804","title":{"rendered":"MEG 2: THE TRENCH is a Bizarre Hodgepodge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Running Time: 116 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This feature film from Warner Bros. Pictures is playing\nexclusively at theaters.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original The Meg<\/em> arrived at cinemas in August of\n2018 and was a surprise success at the box office. It split critics, but this\nreviewer admits to having enjoyed it. The film was slickly-produced and had its\ntongue firmly planted in its cheek, yet still managed to create a few memorable\ncharacters, as well as some enjoyably over-the-top action scenes. Meg 2: The\nTrench<\/em> is the follow-up, and while the movie attempts to do the very same\nthing it doesn\u2019t work nearly as effectively. Despite the talent involved, it\u2019s\na bizarre hodgepodge that jumps jarringly between multiple genres and lacks a\nunified tone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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5 years after the events of the first film, rescue diver\nJonas Taylor (Jason Statham) has continued working with the Mana One underwater\nresearch facility. Well, that and serving as an environment activist, in\naddition to playing co-stepdad to 14-year-old Meiying Zhang (Sophia Cai)\nalongside her uncle\/company president Jiuming Zhang (Wu Jing). When Jonas\nagrees to explore the bottom of the Mariana Trench with Jiuming and his crew,\nMeiying decides to stow aboard. It isn\u2019t long before things go horribly wrong.\nThe group discovers a secret and illegal mining operation at the bottom of the\ntrench and are attacked by not only megalodon sharks, but other prehistoric\nbeasts. They must survive both human and aquatic threats, identify the sinister\nmasterminds within the Mena One operation and get back to the surface in one\npiece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s certainly a lot (perhaps too much) going on\nstory-wise, as well as dealing with returning characters and several new ones\nwho are added into the mix. Unfortunately, most of the newbies don\u2019t stand out\nand many of these figures appear to serve as little more than cannon fodder.\nThe movie also suffers from some truly creaky dialogue, including a character who\nstates, \u201cThat was too<\/em> close!\u201d after narrowly avoiding death. Frankly,\nit\u2019s difficult to get a handle on whether or not the movie is using and poking\nfun at these clich\u00e9s intentionally, because the lines aren\u2019t delivered with\nenough of a wink to make them funny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And as mentioned, there\u2019s a strange juggling of genres\nincluding action, horror and comedy. It\u2019s not impossible to pull this task off\n(the original movie, as well as 1999\u2019s Deep Blue Sea<\/em> balanced these\nelements effectively and still maintained a consistent tone), but here sections\nof the film seem firmly entrenched in one camp before veering jarringly to\nanother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scenes of the divers heading to the lowest sections of the ocean, dealing with serious submersible problems and fighting to stay alive at a mining facility are played relatively straight. Yes, the odd humorous comment is made, but Jonas acts genuinely concerned about the safety of his stepdaughter. And naturally, the villains are deadly serious and glowering throughout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there are scenes that delve into horror as the divers\nare pursued and eaten by creatures deep within the trench. A few jolts are\neffective, like an unsettling depiction of what happens when a person in a\ncracked submersible suit visor goes through the depressurization process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But at the same time, there\u2019s comedy up above as returning\ncharacters James “Mac” Mackreides (Cliff Curtis) and DJ (Page\nKennedy) ward off armed mercenaries sent by the villain. They trade amusing\nquips, but don\u2019t seem as worried about their mortality. It all feels like an\noddly stitched together patchwork that lacks drama, excitement or effective\nhumor. And weirdly enough, the megalodons themselves end up disappearing for\nextended portions of the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That is, except for the finale. The movie goes utterly\nbonkers in its final act when all parties do battle at a vacation resort. These\nsequences play like a big-budget Sharknado!<\/em> picture, featuring gags so\nutterly preposterous that this reviewer couldn\u2019t help but laugh (and wish that\nthe entire film had adopted this approach). Even the actors appear to be\nsmiling as characters are mowed down all around them. It\u2019s another example of\nthe movie jarringly switching tones, but in this case the change delivers\nlaughs and wild visuals. The point-of-view shot from inside the mouth of a meg\nfeaturing swimmers being gobbled down and chomped up is hysterical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There are a couple of outrageous moments and a crazy finale,\nbut the screenplay feels like it was thrown together hastily in a boardroom\nmeeting without any concern towards developing believable situations, genuine\nthrills or proper story arcs for its characters. In the end, Meg 2: The\nTrench<\/em> is only for fans of B-movies, and even they would be wise to save\nsome time by sneaking in and just enjoying the final 20 minutes.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Running Time: 116 minutes This feature film from Warner Bros. Pictures is playing exclusively at theaters. The original The Meg arrived at cinemas in August of 2018 and was a surprise success at the box office. It split critics, but this reviewer admits to having enjoyed it. The film was slickly-produced and had its tongue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":26805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[213,3801,4508,4660,6251,9319,10440,13625,13626,13627,13628,13633,15637,17776,18035,18162,18714,21574,23989,24526],"class_list":["post-26804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-213","tag-camp","tag-cliff-curtis","tag-comedy","tag-drama","tag-horror","tag-jason-statham","tag-meg-2-the-trench","tag-meg-2-the-trench-film-review","tag-meg-2-the-trench-movie-review","tag-meg-2-the-trench-review","tag-megalodon","tag-page-kennedy","tag-science-fiction-2","tag-sequel","tag-shark","tag-sophia-cai","tag-the-meg","tag-warner-bros","tag-wu-jing"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}