Welcome to Joe at the Movies. Some movies don’t need sequels and some movies don’t even need to exist in the first place, with Meg 2: The Trench, we’re in way too deep. If you had any hope for the talented director Ben Wheatley polishing this turd of a franchise into something worth watching, sorry, I’m going to have to reel in your optimism. The one thing you could say about the original movie was that it was at least a shark movie, Meg 2 is a generic action movie with a shark in the beginning and the end. For most of the runtime you get to watch Jason Statham and friends trying to escape from big and uninteresting environments, with the tease of a shark here and there, and maybe even more than one, what a twist that would be. Despite the movie trying to be this big mega blockbuster, it feels so small. It doesn’t feel like the characters are going on some sort of grand adventure, it feels like actors walking on a cramped predetermined path in a warehouse somewhere. Most of the time there isn’t really even a goal to said walking, and “survival” doesn’t cut it when the movie treats life like something to be used then disposed of. The film trades ambition for a high body count, thinking that is a worthy substitute, but every death feels shallow and worthless. Even a named character dying has no impact, the dozens of extras being disposed of feels like cheap window dressing. Despite the violence and the implication of tension, the movie lulled me into such a trance that I was starting to forget parts of it while I was watching, which is probably the highest praise I can give it. I only wish I could have forgotten the whole thing by the time it was done. Products like this breed cynicism, it’s the reason why people are so negative about the things that are supposed to entertain and inform them. It’s malicious, it’s a ploy to move money from your pocket into someone else’s and nothing more. If you’re going to waste your money, don’t waste your time too, Meg 2 get two thumbs down from me.