"That's the biggest Meg I've ever seen". "Biggest Meg anyone's ever seen". If you're expecting highbrow scriptwriting, this is not the review for you. Meg 2 : The Trench has been savaged by most of the critics, with a lowly Rotten Tomatoes score of 28%, but audiences are enjoying it a lot more.
Sofia and I went on a Tuesday date night to see it, and we both agreed on an 8 out of 10. Sometimes you want a film like Oppenheimer, which is complex, thought provoking and pretty mindblowing all round. Other times, you need the escapism offered by watching Jason Statham outwitting giant sharks on a jet ski.
Implausible scenes aplenty, this sequel to the 2018 hit film is a bit of a cross between Jaws and Jurassic Park. The characters are likeable, there are some good bits of humour amongst the underwater fight scenes, and Statham is on top form going head-to-head with...well, pretty much everyone. It's daft, and it knows it is.
The plot, for what it's worth, involves a deep exploratory dive into the ocean, to check out an ancient eco system untouched by man, and find out exactly what's down there. So far, so dangerous. Things get worse when our intrepid explorers discover a rogue mining operation, have to navigate their way through a huge explosion, and then discover that their escape submarine has been sabotaged by someone on the team. They are forced to walk three kilometres on the ocean floor, whilst avoiding hungry plankton, jellyfish, and whatever else might be lurking 25,000 feet beneath the surface.
The scenes towards the end on Fun Island go very much into Sharknado territory at times, and I particularly enjoyed Page Kennedy as DJ, with some of the funniest lines of the film. Look, it's not going to win any awards, but if you just want to switch off your brain for a couple of hours, it's the perfect movie for the summer holidays. The reviews are savage, so maybe I'm in the minority here, but I enjoyed it. I don't think Meg 3 will happen, but then again they've managed to come up with a fourth Expendables film, so who knows?
Also this week, a mention for a true classic. Released in 1999, Fight Club is a frequently quoted movie ("the first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club"), but wasn't what I expected at all...it was way better! I should have known it would be good with David Fincher at the helm, and can't believe I took almost a quarter of a century to watch it. The message of the movie is pretty clear - live for yourself, because you only have a short time on Earth. Brad Pitt and Edward Norton are both superb, and to be clear, the second rule of Fight Club is...you still don't talk about it. One of the most iconic films of the 90s, and definitely one to catch on Amazon Prime or Disney Plus.
