Jason Statham is back as Jonas Taylor in this sequel to 2018’s The Meg. He leads a daring research team on an exploratory dive into the deepest depths of the ocean with disastrous results when three giant prehistoric sharks are released into open water.
As much as I enjoy creature features, and the original film was fun enough though with script issues, it was the unlikely choice of Ben Wheatley to direct that piqued my interest most. Unfortunately, there was no evidence of Wheatley’s quirky or original previous work and this could easily have been directed by Jon Turtletaub, like the previous one.
Having said that, it is an improvement on the first film, with less dialogue explaining the plot, and more action. Statham does his usual thing and it is good to see returning cast members Shuya Sophia Cai as Jonas’ step-daughter and Page Kennedy who adds a lot of humour as engineer DJ. It is a pity though that Bingbing Li’s character had been killed-off between films but new cast member Melissanthi Mahut delivers some withering lines well.
Like the previous movie, this is clearly as much aimed at the Chinese market as it is the rest of the world and a lot of the early stages are a little marred by being underwater and consequently murky. The latter part of the film is real action-filled rollicking stuff. A third instalment is set-up and, based on the early box office returns, that now seems very likely.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10