Shark movies, similar to exorcism movies, have a considerable problem doing their own thing. The towering edifice of Jaws looms over the entire subgenre, and its evergreen status makes it an automatic go-to whenever someone wants to watch a movie about a killer shark. Subsequent films find themselves either trying vainly to ignore it or drawing on its tropes, thus inviting uniformly unflattering comparisons. A few movies here and there have managed to avoid that fate, including The Shallows and Open Water. Still, their ranks should probably include The Meg, which never went in for the high-minded thrills of those earlier films but instead embraced the pulp.
The Meg turned into a surprise hit, which has now spawned the inevitable Meg 2: The Trench. Shooting has begun on the sequel as per an official announcement from the production on February 4th. While details on the plot are still unrevealed, the title — and the novel on which it is presumably based — suggests a deliberate effort to step away from the concepts of Jaws. In the process, it might very well be emulating another Steven Spielberg-led franchise about wild creatures running amuck: the Jurassic Park movies.
The Meg took open and obvious cues from Jaws, and indeed its appropriation became a deliberate part of the movie’s humor. Its central gimmick was simply that the shark was so much bigger than any other shark yet seen on screen. It even drove the point home by including a scene where the “big” Meg destroys the heroes’ boat, which is itself sporting a smaller Meg about the size of Spielberg’s legendary Bruce the shark. The big one takes the smaller one down in a single bite.
The premise helped make the movie a late summer hit in August 2018: a traditional “last gasp” point in the calendar when grindhouse entertainment didn’t have to compete with bigger blockbusters earlier in the season. That meant it didn’t promise more than a little popcorn fun, which also meant it could openly borrow from Jaws without enduring too much heat. Sequences such as Jason Statham tagging the smaller Meg with a tracker and the ubiquitous attack on a beach full of swimmers felt more than familiar. While The Meg never denied its comparative lack of originality, critics were fair in pointing it out.
The sequel clearly intends to move beyond that, though as far as originality goes, it likely won’t fall from the tree. The first film was based on 1997’s Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten. That novel spawned a rafter of sequels, the first of which — called simply The Trench — is presumably the basis for the new movie. It provides some clues as to the presumed content. The title almost certainly refers to the Mariana Trench, which the scientists of the first movie were focused on and served as the native waters for the giant shark. Most importantly, The Trench features a second type of monster: a prehistoric reptile known as a Kronosaurus, which proceeds to cause much the same kind of mayhem as the Meg did in the first story.
It wouldn’t be the first time such a creature appeared in film, however. 2015’s Jurassic World featured a Mosasaurus as one of its signature beasts, performing for the tourists just before all hell breaks loose in the expected fashion. The monster is almost identical to a Kronosaurus, such that any appreciable differences become minute at best. Assuming Meg 2 is using The Trench as its basis, it can claim seniority: the novel was released in 1999. But given the stature of the Jurassic Park franchise, and with Steven Spielberg once again sitting at its foundation, it’s going to have a hard time claiming improved originality.
Criticism of this nature has to be taken with tongue at least partially in cheek. The Meg is a guilty pleasure aided by the fact that it openly embraces its mercenary nature. The sequel is under no obligation to do anything differently. But the fact remains that The Meg actively pushed itself as a flashier, more gimmicky version of Jaws. Escaping that shadow only to enter another one just as large suggests a lot of effort without corresponding progress.
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