Megalodón 2: El Gran Abismo

My Rating reflects expectations. If this was touted as a edge of your seat thriller with cutting edge CGI and unexpected twists and turns, it'd be a 2. But this was always going to end up the campy, overacted, completely implausible, CGI riddled cheese-fest that it is. And it absolutely delivered on that expectation.

It has Plot holes so big you could swim a megladon through, hilarious foreshadowing via dialogue (if they say something won't happen, its going to happen,) and a decent smattering of quips, giggle/smirk inducing lines, and the requisite action scenes.

It ticked all the boxes for expectations - and exceeded it in areas like "completely unrealistic technology," "inaccurate animal behaviour" and "Implausible physics/hydrodynamics." But that just added to the fun.

For the naysayers - expecting more quality/realism/etc from this movie is like expecting a Fast and the Furious movie to be extolling the virtues of bicycles.

Its a fun, lighthearted, and "laugh at the ridiculousness" sort of flick and that's worth a passing grade.

I have no problem with 'brainless' action / monster movies, as long as they are done right. The first Meg was a decent enough bit of entertainment. The sequel is a very pale immitation.

There are is a pointless eco=polution sub-plot that I assume are included to pad out the story. They add nothing to the story, plus they are really badly done with obvious villains who are revealed too early and have very predictable deaths.

As other reviews have pointed out, what little Meg action there is takes place in darkness with average cgi. The acting is phoned in by most of the cast.

The movie kicks into overdrive in the last act, where all hell breaks loose and we get a series of multi-monster / bad-guy action scenes. Even here, all logic goes out the window.

It also doesn't help that this was made before the events of the Titan submersible disaster and anyone watching this will have a passing knowledge of the effects of incredibly deep submersion on the human body, so the entire underwater action in the first half is ridiculously stupid.

This just isn't silly enough to make it worth a few hours of your time.

Personally, I was surprised that Jason Statham decided to make a sequel to the Meg. Most likely because I did not think the Meg was his type of movie. Not exactly Crank on water or anything. The film is an obvious cash cow but worth the money. No need to put any thought into how stupid this movie its cause it's met to be the opposite of smart. Its entertaining as hell and does not slow down long enough for me to point out the plot holes and the science mistakes. A perfect Tie-in to Shark Week. I went into this baby knowing that I was going to like it and I came out loving every minute of it. It's not met to be Shakespeare but it's definitely a fun experience.

Meg 2: The Trench is like all those late entries to the Jurassic Park franchise: lifeless, soulless, mindless, dumb, generic. There is no excitement or suspense, no characters one can relate too (at least I couldn't), and compared to fine "shark movies" like Jaws, Deep Blue Sea, Open Water or The Shallows, this one is not B-league but C-league, despite some production value. Also, some well done CGI is no news anymore for quite some time and not very entertaining if the rest of the movies is just crap. I really would prefer to put some of those good old Godzilla themed movies of the 50s and 60s back on my screen (and have some fun) instead of watching this, well, void of boredom ever again. I really like some of the movies starring Jason Statham, but as I don't watch (and like) Fast & Furios movies (the last one I watched was the third entry) the last really good one I can remember was that little movie Homefront, a movie made 10 years ago - simply put, I would prefer to get more class and less mass.

I wanted to like this, I really did, it has everything, giant creature, Statham, shark, but this is just so boring.

The problem is, it hits every cliché. Annoying kid, paint by the number villain, a predictable plot. Unlikable characters who all behave like cartoon characters.

I liked the first movie and was looking forward to the sequel, but the irritating characters and lazy [;it just didn't do it for me.

I don't mind popcorn movies where you park your brain at the door, but they are usually fun. I think that is the problem here, it just was not fun. Statham is the best thing about this movie, he always turns in a reliable performance. The rest of the cast are so forgettable, in the end I was cheering for the shark.

If I want a good shark movie, I will watch Jaws.