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Meg 2: The Trench (Jason Statham vs kaiju Jaws sequel August 2023)

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  • Aug 25th, 2023 10:08 am
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webshark wrote: It will bomb here and be a massive hit in China.
Heading for a $40m opening weekend (though the film's page has the domestic total at $44.5m right now which is apparently a great start).
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4426&p=.htm

There's also $97m in foreign receipts.
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I went in with low expectations and got what I expected. It's really just your standard cheesy shark movie with a big budget, and I'm ok with that. It would have been a little better if we got an R rated version though.

I recommend watching The Shallows if you're looking for a good modern shark flick.
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Not sure what to make of this observation from ICv2...
Warner Bros., which is distributing The Meg here in the U.S., noted that The Meg is doing especially well in Hispanic markets such as San Antonio, Miami, and Corpus Christi.
Does anyone have any idea if there's some sort of cultural reason why The Meg would appeal to the Latino fan base?

It's also kind of crazy that The Meg is Warner's biggest domestic opener this year. If you were to tell me at the beginning of 2018 that The Meg would open better than Ready Player One ($44.5M vs. $41.8M) I wouldn't have believed you.
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is this sequel in space with time travel..just want to be sure thats covered. So its put to bed asap!!
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Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water (or theatres?)



The Trench?
They should've crossed over with Aquaman
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Hmm I saw the first one on Netflix. Shame they took it away. Will probably wait for online streaming for this one too.
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Well, this trailer looks real exciting. Might be good fun to watch in the theatres. And that Trench scene in Aquaman was truly spectacular.
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They even got Wu Jing to join the cast of the sequel. Loved him in SPL and Wolf Warrior 2. That tank scene was awesome.
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ugly wrote: It's already been done:
This is brilliant.

Meg... Not so much. The first one was bad, this looks ridiculous at best. Trex getting eaten by a shark that Jason Statham is going to defeat? lmfao
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I don't know how many people here recognize the name Ben Wheatley. For those of you who don't, he's a British director who knows his way around genre films like Free Fire, High-Rise, and the Netflix remake of Rebecca. He earned a lot of good will from me because of his first two movies—Down Terrace, which is a crime thriller with a black-as-night sense of humour, and Kill List, which is an assassin's story that turns into folk horror. When Wheatley brings his A game, he makes really interesting movies, which is why I've repeatedly given him the benefit of the doubt even though I haven't been happy with his last few movies.

That brings me to Meg 2: The Trench. Wheatley took over the directing duties from the Jon Turtletaub, the exceptionally workman-like helmer who's managed to actively avoid inspiration for his entire career. The Meg from 2018 is a movie I'll complain about whenever it gets mentioned because it was about a giant shark attacking people but the film somehow managed to be bloodless. Seriously, how the hell did you manage that?? Ben Wheatley has never been shy about graphic violence so I held out hope that he could give the Meg sequel the teeth the first movie lacked.

So the good news is that in Meg 2 we actually see people wind up in the jaws of gigantic sharks. Wheatley even gives us a POV shot from inside the throat of a megalodon as some hapless swimmers get turned into lunch. The big climax has the Stathe in full action hero mode doing battle with multiple megs while human bad guys make life considerably more difficult for him.

Meg 2 tries to mix things up by leaning into human enemies. In fact, the first time we see Statham is in a scene not unlike something from Under Siege where he single-handedly takes on the entire crew of a ship. Later, we're introduced to some bad apples who say things like 'I'm here to make money. Who cares about the environment?' and have an army of mercenaries at their disposal. These human baddies take up a good chunk of the runtime and actually make you forget that there are carnivorous sea creatures looking for people-sized Happy Meals.

For those of you who know who Wu Jing is, you're going to be really disappointed. He's the real life wushu champion-turned-action hero who's made a ton of beat-em-up pics like SPL: Killzone, Legendary Assassin, and Fatal Contact. He's obviously in the movie to appeal to the Mainland Chinese crowd since Meg 2 (like its predecessor) was co-financed by Chinese investors. So if you hire a big action star, wouldn't you want him to show off his martial arts skills, especially with so many human enemies in the movie? Better yet, wouldn't you want him to take on the Stathe so we can get a better version of the clash in War where Statham fought Jet Li?

Whoever was making the decisions behind Meg 2 decided that 'no' would be the answer to all of the above. Wu plays the uncle of Meiying (Sophia Cai), the little girl from the original, and he's a tech bro/oceanic researcher. Jackie Chan has never had a problem playing chefs and lawyers who inexplicably have mad fighting skills, but Wu doesn't go that route so he's just a businessman who has to outsmart the bad guys when they confront him. This is kind of like having Tony Jaa in your movie and asking him to play a buttoned-up accountant. Why would you do that? Why would you waste someone trained in martial arts on a role like this?

Meg 2 is full of bad decisions and liberally 'borrows' from better movies like Jurassic Park and The Abyss. When the action is coherent, it's a decent watch, but a fair number of the underwater attacks are hard to follow because of the rapid editing. The action is a step up from the PG-rated violence-free attacks from the first movie, but if you've watched other big budget sea-based action flicks, you've most likely seen better.

For me, this Meg sequel was the waste of a good ticket. I've given Ben Wheatley chance after chance, and with this movie, I think he's burned up the last of my good will towards him.
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Reviews are pretty bad on this...

The story of making it to the big screen actually is a long and fascinating process from 1996-2023 and the entire production put into the most expensive shark movie ever made.

The $167,000,000 Production of MEG 2 by Frame Voyager

Who doesn't like a DUMB summer blockbuster that you go in knowing you're going to just have fun? Meg 2: The TRENCH promises to do just that as a followup to the first movie The Meg. But its story of making it to the big screen actually is a long and fascinating process from 1996-2023 and the entire production put into the most expensive shark movie ever made.
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Dhanushan wrote: Reviews are pretty bad on this...

lol, did you not see the trailer? A shark eats a T-Rex. A man kills t-rex eating shark.

That's all you need to know to guess how good this movie was going to be.
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saw it last wk...lame as f^%#.....
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ha 120 million to make. How much did the main star get paid for this
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evilYoda wrote: ha 120 million to make. How much did the main star get paid for this
You can't establish a cash amount for a ruined career.
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Apparently available to rent at Google Play (and elsewhere .... mateys!)
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jenviea wrote: Apparently available to rent at Google Play (and elsewhere .... mateys!)
Need lots of alcohol for this.

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