Meg 2: The Trench (2023)

Meg 2: The Trench takes the formula for gigantic animal horror and leans into the campiness.

Directed by Ben Wheatley, who has directed a bunch of British films that you've never heard of. The film suffers in pacing, and perhaps due to Stathom's prestige that he didn't reshoot some scenes that desperately needed it. To be fair this also could have been the editor's fault but they might not have had much to work with.

The screenplay was written by the duo of Jon & Erich Joeber as well as Dean Georgaris. The Joebers wrote the first Meg as well as Battleship and RED 1+2. They don't produce all stinkers as I actually enjoyed the 2009 film Whiteout. Dean helped write the first film as the remake of The Manchurian Candidate. This leads me to believe the dialogue was mainly written by him, or at least the funny parts as there are some great lines by both Stathom and Page Kennedy who returns as DJ.

Shuya Sophia Cai plays the half-white, half-Chinese child who played the character, written for her, great. She plays off of Stathom's serious tone and adds some levity to make the film not too stark. Also when I first saw her I thought that Kristen Schaal had a love child with Simu Liu. She looks so much like Kristen Schaal that it did distract me.

You don't go into a film like Cocaine Bear or Meg 2: The Trench expecting a great film. You expect to be entertained. The first half of the film is pretty boring but it gets better towards the end. Grade: C

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