The Meg 2: The Trench (2023)

Troublant...

Bah, tout est dans le titre. Si la première partie du film captive, la seconde devient prévisible au possible.

Cette suite est hilarante de ridicule, mais capable de proposer des scènes prenantes (notamment sous l'eau dans sa première partie). Je ne vais pas faire l'éloge du scénario, il est médiocre. Avec en plus un petit pitch qui se veut écolo bien qu'on se doute que les gentils écolos ne le sont pas tant que ça. Ah, l'argent ! Je ne vais pas non plus m'attarder sur Jason Statham qui semble vouloir détrôner Chuck Norris. Cependant (et comme pour le premier film), l'ensemble du casting est bon, mais manque encore une fois d'émotion, malgré quelques tentatives.

En réalité, ce n'est pas surprenant qu'il soit tant critiqué, mais il reste divertissant et je plaide coupable de l'avoir été. Il m'a tiré plus de rires que je ne le pensais parce que c'est absurde, mais avec une bonne mise en scène. Il est dommage de voir qu'en fin de compte, on passe peu de temps sous l'eau.

En bref, The Meg 2 est exactement ce qu'on attendait. Une suite médiocre et ridicule qui nous tire quelques rires.

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More teeth but not more fun than the original

If you watched surprise hit, The Meg (2018), and go into The Meg 2 expecting Shakespeare, you get what you get. The first Meg film was so bad it was hilariously funny. The second film had better acting than the first and tried to have a stronger plot and slightly better science. Unfortunately, it made the cardinal sin of focusing too much on the humans and not enough on the monsters. Which was perplexing given there were more Megalodons and a dangerous menagerie of creatures from the mysterious depths of the ocean.

Jason Statham returns as Jonas the Daredevil Diver who has turned into a fighter for eco-justice. Cai Shu Ya once again plays The Special Child, Mei Ying. This time Mei Ying is motherless and seems to be living at the Oceanic Institute either with Jonas or her uncle Jiu Ming. Jiu Ming (Wu Jing) is brilliant and reckless. He attempts to train a young Meg named Haiqi and is unafraid of being in the water with her. Cliff Curtis as Jonas' friend Mac and Page Kennedy as DJ (who can now swim and is no longer a terrible stereotype) are back as well. Along with new guy Jiu Ming, Melissanthi Mahut joins the good guys as Rigas, the fearless pilot.

This time instead of stumbling upon the Megs on their maiden voyage, the crew is studying the bottom of the Mariana Trench with better equipment and understanding of what lurks in the scientifically inexplicable dark…or so they believe. When they stumble upon a secret facility at the bottom of the ocean, they face betrayals and bad guys willing to do anything to protect their valuable secrets.

Statham made for a serviceable good guy who can face 90ft/27m ancient sharks without flinching and take down bad guys with his bare hands. Wu Jing was also shown as being super heroic and invincible. While I'm usually disappointed when an actor replaces an actress, Li Bing Bing struggled in her role as scientist and Mei Ying's mom in the first film. Wu Jing seemed to be enjoying his time running from prehistoric creatures and attacking a giant octopus. Curtis and Kennedy had more to do in this film instead of standing around wringing their hands. Mei Ying as the adventurous fourteen-year-old and Rigas as the tough talking pilot at least made viable female characters. The Big Bad and her minions were all but cartoon characters.

Once the critters in the water and on land showed up the movie became more interesting. Guys with guns, and not done well, really weren't. Were the confrontations between man and giant fish/octopus/freaky amphibians realistic? No. Were they fun? Most of the time, yes. There were a couple of very funny moments. The underwater scenes that should have been frightening and claustrophobic, weren't done particularly well. It was hard to care about the people who died because we didn't know them and didn't provide the jump factor either. My biggest complaint with the Megalodons was that they didn't show the size perspective very well. But there were plenty of fins and teeth. The monsters always appeared on the surface where there were revelers in the water to give the ginormous sharks and creatures plenty of people to choose from and the heroes lots of innocents to save. For those who are very squeamish the chomping wasn't too blood thirsty with a PG-13 rating.

It's hard to not compare the two movies. The Meg 2 had better acting and in some ways a better script than the original because while it also used stereotypes at least they weren't racist and sexist stereotypes. The drawback was that it took nearly a third of the movie to pick up traction. Jonas' fight with polluters in the opening scene had nothing to do with the rest of the movie except to give him a reason to pummel people. No one wants to watch someone talking on a microphone at the beginning of a giant shark movie either. Bring on the talent! For the genre, TM2 wasn't bad, if you watched Big Octopus you'll know what I'm talking about. Those who enjoyed The Meg may enjoy this one as well. If your tolerance for clichés, stilted dialogue, and people being chomped on by creatures is low, better to avoid this one. The Meg 2 may not have been an ex-squid-it Shakespeare Underwater, yet for a ridiculous movie about Megalodons, it wasn't carp either.


10/1/23

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