Meg 2: The Trench
Warner Bros. | Release Date: August 4, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
40
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
24
Negative:
8
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
EmpireBen TravisAug 4, 2023
Despite elements that threaten to drag it down into the depths, Ben Wheatley’s Meg sequel (cherish those words) battles a waterlogged script with playful pulpiness, delivering solid summer fin. Sorry, fun. Read full review
60
NMEMark BeaumontAug 4, 2023
Wheatley proves himself an instant master of CGI monster movie mayhem here, but by piling it on so relentlessly thick he all but admits defeat in his initial attempts to give the franchise any believable depths. Read full review
60
Vanity FairRichard LawsonAug 3, 2023
Meg 2 is confident in its schlock, piling on one ridiculous conceit after another at such a pace that the audience can’t help but be swept up in it. That is a harder needle to thread than many filmmakers seem to think—it’s not enough to just be stupid. Read full review
59
Paste MagazineAurora AmidonAug 7, 2023
Directed by Ben Wheatley, Meg 2: The Trench earnestly takes on the challenge of being even more brazenly goofy and ludicrous than the first film. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubMark KeizerAug 3, 2023
It’s faint, if legitimate, praise to say that The Meg 2: The Trench is better than the first film because, while it repeats everything the first film did wrong, it improves on everything it did right. It lacks the drive, imagination, and sense of awe to work as a pastiche of Aliens, The Abyss, Jaws, and Jurassic Park. But the more fulsomely the movie embraces its big budget, DVD-era silliness, the longer it and the audience are riding the same enjoyably stupid wave. Read full review
58
ColliderMarco Vito OddoAug 3, 2023
In the end, Meg 2: The Trench is not much different from the first installment in the franchise, for better and mostly worse. Read full review
50
The Film StageMichael FrankAug 4, 2023
Statham is continually up to the challenge, kicking, punching, and fighting people and sharks alike. He’s on a run of mid-tier movies unlike anyone else in Hollywood, and once he gets going, jet-skiing around an island taking on three megs, the film finally transforms into pure entertainment. Read full review
50
The Associated PressJocelyn NoveckAug 3, 2023
At a certain point, somebody says “I just hope this goes better than last time.” It’s a cheeky reference to the first film, but also a rather dangerous line to include in a sequel, because they almost never go better than last time. This one doesn’t either, but at least it’s upfront about what it’s doing: just making stuff bigger and crazier. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleBob StraussAug 3, 2023
Though Meg 2 is by far the biggest production he’s ever helmed, director Ben Wheatley doesn’t appear to be in over his head with this; special effects and stunts are proficiently delivered, no matter how ludicrous Read full review
50
The Daily BeastNick SchagerAug 3, 2023
[Wheatley’s] chaos and madness is of a blandly cartoonish variety, neither serious enough to scare nor outlandish enough to elicit laughs. Read full review
50
ObserverLaura BablackAug 3, 2023
It’s an odd and unfortunate shift for the sequel that leaves its action wanting, especially since it’s steeped in the genre of shark-based silliness. Read full review
45
The Film VerdictAlonso DuraldeAug 4, 2023
Whether the eventual people-eating of the film’s final act merits enduring the turgid early portions of Meg 2: The Trench is, of course, a matter of opinion, but viewers might be well advised to wait until they can see the movie in a medium that involves a fast-forward button. Read full review
42
IndieWireKate ErblandAug 3, 2023
Yet another seemingly unassailable combination of story and filmmaker that fails to capitalize on any of its obvious promises. Read full review
40
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyAug 17, 2023
Meg 2: The Trench is enthusiastically married to the idea that you must eat your vegetables before you get your dessert. But, really, it’s too little, too late. Read full review
40
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaAug 4, 2023
I don't fault Meg 2: The Trench for being silly. I do fault it for being boring.  Read full review
40
The GuardianRyan GilbeyAug 4, 2023
The sequel alternately treads water and splashes around frantically in search of an identity. Never settling on whether he wants his film to be Alien, Jaws, Jurassic Park or Sharknado, Wheatley serves up a bouillabaisse of all four. Read full review
40
We Got This CoveredScott CampbellAug 4, 2023
Ben Wheatley's blockbuster debut reduces him to an anonymous bystander in a sequel that's inexplicably weaker than its predecessor. If we get 'Meg 3,' then somebody needs to remember these things are supposed to be fun. Read full review
40
Total FilmNeil SmithAug 4, 2023
The first Meg never pretended to be anything more than a shamelessly imitative, big-fish smackdown. Yet even that low bar proves too high for this listless, mechanical follow-up. Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinAug 4, 2023
Meg 2, by design, is a completely anonymous bag of lukewarm McDonalds – it’s hard to be mad at it, but only because nothing in it stands out enough to get mad at. Read full review
40
CNNBrian LowryAug 3, 2023
The film goes from Shark Week to shark weak – from playfully amusing to just plain stupid, eliciting enough laughs in the wrong places to make an advance screening virtually interactive. Read full review
40
Screen DailyTim GriersonAug 3, 2023
Lacking the killer instinct of its ferocious titular beasts, Meg 2: The Trench lumbers through the waters, failing as both a gripping thriller and a cheeky ’so bad it’s good’ piece of late-summer escapism. Read full review
40
VarietyOwen GleibermanAug 3, 2023
The Meg 2 is numbingly formulaic, promiscuously derivative and, for a few stretches (like the over-the-top third act), diverting in its very shamelessness. It is, in other words, all an August movie really needs to be. But there’s a way that the line between August movies and movies, period, is growing thinner every day. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyAug 3, 2023
As much as it’s a joy to watch Statham slinging explosive harpoons from a jet ski, Meg 2 offers only scattershot pleasures. It’s too ridiculous to muster serious scares and too tonally uncertain to convince us that it’s consistently in on the joke. Read full review
40
IGNMatt DonatoAug 3, 2023
Meg 2: The Trench has all the excitement of fishing solo for two hours without a single bite. Wheatley is a shell of himself behind the camera, devoid of personality and originality. Read full review
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