Did I watch The Meg? I have some vague memory about seeing it but, for the life of me, I cannot remember a single thing from that movie. Well, that’s precisely the reason why I wasn’t all that eager to see Meg 2: The Trench when it became available on HBO Go. Still, I had a solid two hours to kill so why not watch Jason Statham try to kill a giant shark or two?

So, Meg 2: The Trench takes place a couple of years after the first movie… I guess. Like I said, I don’t remember a whole lot from that film. Jonas Taylor, played by Jason Statham, works for an environmental agency who are also exploring an area known as The Trench, a portion of the ocean that’s so deep, prehistoric monsters, such as the Megs, thrive. While leading an expedition into the Trench, something happens (I’m making this a SPOILER FREE review despite it being out for quite a while) and this leads to Jason Statham’s character to try to save the surface world from some of the previously trapped prehistoric monsters from, you know, eating a lot of people.

What to say about Meg 2: The Trench? Well, I guess the best thing I can say about it is it does get really fun by the last act. Unfortunately, that means the rest of the movie feels like a slog to get through. Now, I like Jason Statham as an actor. I just don’t like it when he’s not utilized to his best, like he is here. Sure, there are some fight scenes, so you do get to see him whoop some ass sporadically throughout the movie’s 116-minute runtime. However, even these fight scenes never felt as exciting as they should be. It’s actually disappointing as Jason Statham is still giving it his all during these fights.

I also wasn’t all that interested in the plots. Yes, there’s the central plot where Jason Statham has to take on several megs. But it’s almost like an old-school/Heisei-era Godzilla movie where you would have to suffer through a lot of “human” stuff before you get to see the monsters to “monster” stuff. There’s the ecological message of how humans ravage nature just to get rich. There’s another sub-plot about how there might be a traitor in their midst. There’s also the sub-plot where Jason Statham’s character is now taking care of the child from the first movie as the mother died or something. If that happened in the first movie, I’m sorry. I clean forgot.

Speaking of the humans, I didn’t really care for them either. Some of Jason Statham’s crew died and it’s sad when I don’t care enough for me to even know what their role was in the crew. They just come off as cannon fodder for the variety of monsters who attack them before the third act. On that note, I also do have to talk about the CGI in this film as it’s pretty bad. You can tell that all the monsters and the underwater scenes had a lot of CGI in them and the movie doesn’t do a good enough job of blending them together in a believable way.

Weirdly enough, the bad CGI is both a pro and a con for Meg 2: The Trench. That’s because, during the first couple of acts, things are supposed to be all serious. That all changes during the final act, where a variety of monsters start attacking the surface. All of a sudden, this dour film about how humans are destroying the environment, backstabbing allies and the like changes. Once the monsters start wrecking havok, Meg 2: The Trench becomes a cheese-filled schlock-fest! Not only do you have monsters killing people in somewhat satisfying ways, the bad CGI enhances how goofy it all looks! Also, this is also when all of the main players start acting all kooky. Gone is the facade of seriousness that pervaded the early portion of the film. All of a sudden, Meg 2: The Trench becomes a movie that’s actually fun to watch!

Is the final act enough to save the entire film? Well, for me, kinda. I already said that, in order to get to the final act, you do have to slog through the boring crap, which is very reminiscent of old-school Godzilla films. It just so happens I’m a huge fan of the Heisei-era Godzilla movies! I kind of knew from the trailers that there would be some cool monster scenes near the end of the film so I was mentally prepared to deal with all of the boring crap before it. Of course, your mileage will vary as it depends on how much boring stuff you can stomach before you actually get to the cool bits of a monster movie.

However, I will say the shift between mediocre action sci-fi film to goofy cheese-fest monster movie feels very tonally weird. The change was pretty jarring and I honestly wish the film didn’t take itself too seriously during the first couple of acts. It’s almost like they saw what they’ve filmed and they realized they were being too self-important when they could make a fun monster movie before the filmed the final act. I liked it fine but I don’t think most people will be able to grind through the boring parts to get to the fun monster movie at the end. I guess you can put it on in the background but only start paying attention once you see the monsters attacking the hapless humans on land. At least the final act will stick in my memory.

Have you seen Meg 2: The Trench? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments section below!