Summary

The latest installment of the Meg series, Meg 2: The Trench, has faced criticism for its lack of shark action and focus on human conflicts. Like its predecessor, Meg 2: The Trench prioritized the Chinese market over domestic success, helping boost its box office past its early struggles to success. The disappointing performance of Meg 2: The Trench raises doubts about the possibility of a Meg 3, but if a sequel does happen, it should learn from the failures of its predecessor and the MonsterVerse to deliver the thrilling B-movie experience audiences crave.

Though the movie looks to be bouncing back at the box office, Meg 2: The Trench has found itself as the latest target of Screen Rant’s Pitch Meeting series. The sequel to the 2018 monster movie sees Jason Statham’s Jonas once again recruited to help a group of scientists studying the eponymous Megalodons living in the depths of the Mariana Trench, only to have face down multiple of the large sharks, as well as other creatures released. Alongside Statham, the ensemble Meg 2: The Trench cast features the returns of Sophia Cai, Page Kennedy and Cliff Curtis alongside newcomers Wu Jing, Sergio Peris-Mencheta and Skyler Samuels.

Nearly a month after the movie hit theaters, Screen Rant’s Pitch Meeting series is going aquatic and set its sights on Meg 2: The Trench.

The video, as seen above, pokes fun at the shark sequel’s various issues, namely its lack of actual shark action throughout its runtime, instead keeping the majority of its focus on human conflicts, including an illegal mining operation. The new Pitch Meeting also takes note of how neither Meg 2: The Trench nor its predecessor was released in the hopes of making money domestically, instead putting its focus on the Chinese market.

How Meg 2 Continued The Worst Recent Monster Movie Trend

Following the mixed response to its predecessor, expectations were not very high for Meg 2: The Trench, save for the trailers indicating a better grip on the schlocky B-movie tone critics and audiences wanted from a project involving Jason Statham versus large sharks. Instead, critics took more issues with the sequel than the original The Meg, namely its lackluster pacing and focus on human characters over the potential heights of creature thrills seen near the latter end of the movie.

Meg 2: The Trench’s decision to move away from the shark-focused thrills of its predecessor towards Jurassic Park-style dinosaurs and human conflict continues the worst recent monster movie trend of not fully delivering on the potential of its central concept. Legendary’s MonsterVerse similarly struggled with critics and audiences with both 2014’s Godzilla and its 2019 sequel, King of the Monsters, as their filmmakers sought to create stakes for viewers by getting them invested in potential victims over outright monster action.

The most recent installment of the MonsterVerse, Godzilla vs. Kong, did score better with both critics and audiences alike for finally taking advantage of its kaiju-focused story, even as its human characters continued to get mixed responses. With Meg 2: The Trench struggling at the domestic box office, though earning its money back internationally, it’s unclear if a Meg 3 will be greenlit by Warner Bros. Should the threequel indeed move forward, one can hope they learn the lessons of the sequel’s failures, as well as the MonsterVerse, to deliver the same schlocky B-movie thrills of Snakes on a Plane and Deep Blue Sea that audiences have wanted to see return.