Meg 2

release year: 2023
genre: giant monster drama
viewing setting: home Bluray 7/1/25 and home streaming 11/4/23 and theater 8/4/23

synopsis: Having learned nothing in the previous escapade, various people continue to poke around where they shouldn't, deep beneath the ocean's surface.

impressions: It was very much like the first one. This time around, more people got devoured when the shark(s) invaded a busy beach, but it STILL wasn't what it should have been. The book series had sharks that were big and aggressive enough to take on submarines, yachts, and in some cases larger ships. These sharks are inconsistent - they do things like choosing one victim (or cluster of victims) over another. In the books, the sharks just attacked and devoured EVERYONE in their path, period. Also, there was some nonsense about how protective suits work at extreme depths, where reality was ignored for the sake of the plot. I blame the producers, who push to get what they want instead of what we, the fans, want. But still...this did have its fair share of monster action and mayhem, including a gonzo second half that also featured a giant squid and smaller, land-based dinosaurs (?!)

acting: Jason Statham was more like his other roles this time, as demonstrated in a fight scene early on. Cliff Curtis returns as his helper, ditto Page Kennedy as the engineer and Shuya Sophia Cai as the now-older little girl. Wu Jing is the new executive who's a good guy; Sienna Guillory and Sergio Peris-Mencheta (the main bad guy from Rambo: Last Blood) are the bad guys.

final word: Good, but one wonders if it could have been great. Let's see a third movie with a solid "R" rating and the sharks sinking large ships.

back to the main review page