The megalodon is back. With friends.
Lots of friends as well as some who have no business being able to walk on
land! Quick recap: Jonas Taylor (our Jason) and crew descend again into the
Trench (the Mariana Trench) to investigate further and do more research. They
come across an illegal mining operation and must not only survive an underwater
explosion that breaks the thermal layer (thermocline), thus enabling horrible prehistoric
creatures (with more teeth than is respectable!) to escape but must battle to
survive the attacks by these modern-day pirates intent on plundering the depths
of the ocean floor. As if that’s not enough, treachery in the environmental
company puts everyone trapped in the Trench in grave danger.
If dinosaurs ever rise again, I want
Jason Statham on my side. He does all his own stunts so that’s a very good
reason to have him in one’s camp. Two more megs make it through the thermocline
and proceed to wreak havoc in the Pacific, namely around the ill-fated Fun
Island, now heavily populated by holidaymakers determined to snap selfies and
have the party to end all parties. The action erupts in a whirlwind of teeth,
blood, guts, guns, hails of bullets, explosions and more as Jonas and his team
(bringing back the always watchable Cliff Curtis, Page Kennedy, and Jiuming
Zang) must eradicate the megs and their many-fanged friends. Did I mention that
a giant squid also made it through the thermocline? There’s a nail-biting scene
with it and a helicopter…
Don’t expect stellar acting or a
literary-style script. In fact, the dialogue is downright dreadful and clunky
in places, and people would never speak like this in real life. However, Cliff
Curtis and Jiuming Zang manage to create a very successful comedy duo caper amid
avoiding being eaten on land and in the sea and evading the above-mentioned
hails of bullets. It’s essentially a continuation of The Meg (my review here) with more teeth,
more bullets, and more danger, if that’s possible. It is also very entertaining,
and the action sequences are absolutely incredible.
For those of you, like me, who
spent much of The Meg (part one, #SavePippin) praying that Pippin, the adorable
heroic pooch, would not become a meg snack, you will be delighted to know that
Pippin makes an appearance in The Meg 2 and has a tussle with the arm of the
giant squid. Pippin survives! Adorable Yorkie Kelly plays Pippin admirably and
with great panache in both movies even though the role involves getting soaked
and we all know what that does to a Yorkie’s hairdo… Pippin’s movie action was supervised
by Humane Hollywood (The American Humane Society) and the sea scenes were shot
in a large heated outdoor tank in a studio. Phew!
Make popcorn, get your favourite drink,
sit back, and totally suspend your disbelief. You must but it’s worth it.
PS: A tame megalodon named Haiqa
(can the words ‘tame’ and ‘megalodon’ even go into the same sentence?) makes a
cameo appearance in The Meg 2 and it looks as if she has ‘un petit paquet’ to
offer moviegoers so there might just be a Meg 3.
