Meg 2: The Trench

image for Meg 2: The Trench

Short takes

Not suitable under 12; parental guidance to 13 (sustained violence, scary scenes)

Age
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
classification logo

This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Meg 2: The Trench
  • a review of Meg 2: The Trench completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 7 August 2023.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 12 Not suitable due to sustained violence and scary scenes.
Children aged 12–13 Parental guidance recommended due to sustained violence and scary scenes.
Children aged 14 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Meg 2: The Trench
Classification: M
Consumer advice lines: Sustained threat and action violence
Length: 116 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Five years after the events of the first film, Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) is fighting eco-terrorism and has made an enemy of a mercenary sea captain, Montes (Sergio Peris-Mencheta), having thwarted his venture. Jonas is also bringing up his 14-year-old step-daughter Meiying (Sophia Cai) after the death of his partner Suyin. Suyin’s brother Jiuming (Wu Jing) is also an important adult in Meiying’s life. Jiuming is the director of Mana One, a marine biology centre which is studying a deep trench, known as the Mariana Trench. It is there they found Haiqi, a Megalodon, and have been raising her from a baby. Jiuming is training her to respond to signals.

Haiqi, however, manages to escape captivity and so Jonas and Jiuming go down to the trench in submersibles. Meiying also joins them by hiding in the ship. Meanwhile, Montes has been hired by Jiuming’s partner, Hillary Driscoli (Sienna Guillory), to help her take over Mana One and to destroy evidence of their illegal deep-sea mining. Montes blows up the mine, killing his crew and causing a rupture in the trench which stops the submersibles in their tracks. Jonas, Jiuming and the others have to walk in exosuits to the station, amidst an area of Megalodons.

The Megalodons are on the attack and kill several of the crew. Jonas, Jiuming, Meiying and Rigas (Melissanthi Mahut) survive the trip but find that the thermocline, the barrier between the trench and the upper sea, has also been ruptured, leading to the escape of not only the Megalodons but also large amphibious lizards and a giant squid. Jonas and his team head to Fun Island to warn the happy holidaymakers of the dangers to come but find the Megalodons are already there. Jonas has to fight not only the dangerous creatures but also Montes and his men who are intent on killing him.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Science Fiction; Action Adventure; Prehistoric creatures; Characters in constant peril.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is sustained action-violence throughout this movie, including many fights amongst people with guns, machine guns, explosions, knives, harpoons, punching and kicking, etc. Several characters are killed and/or eaten by Megalodons. Blood is often seen. Other violence includes:

  • Haiqi smashes through the bars of her enclosure to escape.
  • Megalodons chase the submersibles and the people escaping from them. Jonas fires weapons at them and one grabs hold of Meiying. Jonas manages to free her but the Megalodon eats another of the crew.
  • Rigas’s exosuit explodes.
  • A fight between Jonas and Montes is particularly vicious, kicking and punching each other. Montes tries to strangle Jonas with an iron bar. In another fight, later in the movie, Jonas stabs Montes in the leg with a knife and punches him in the eye.
  • The scene on Fun Island is particularly prolonged with the giant lizards attacking people on the land and eating them while the Megalodons are attacking people in the water and eating them. The giant squid attacks with its long tentacles, including grabbing Meiying before Jonas cuts the tentacle off. The squid also causes a helicopter, with Jiuming in it, to crash to the ground. Jonas kills a Megalodon with a helicopter rotor. Jiuming blows up the squid with a bomb. There is much blood in the water.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • There is loud ominous music throughout the movie.
  • The Megalodons are huge, scary creatures with large snapping teeth.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • The movie starts with a scene from the Cretaceous Period, showing large dinosaurs eating smaller ones along the chain until the giant Megalodon jumps out of the water and eats the largest land dinosaur.
  • Jiuming is in the enclosure with Haiqi when she bashes against the glass. It is feared that Jiuming is dead.
  • The Trench is a scary, red/orange environment. Jonas and Jiuming’s submersibles spin out of control when Montes sets off explosions. Many of the crew die and the survivors seem trapped in the Trench. Meiying cries.
  • Several sudden moments with loud sounds and appearances of the giant sharks.
  • The inside of a station base is a wreck in darkness, illuminated by flashing lights.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Jiuming talks about how his father was very tough on him as a child. Physical abuse is implied. He has no contact with him.
  • Rigas seems to be drowning when her exosuit explodes and she’s feared dead.
  • When the helicopter crashes with Jiuming and Mac inside, Jiuming manages to escape but Mac doesn’t. Mac is seen drowning in the sea before Jiuming manages to save him.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • A man on Fun Island asks a woman if she’d like to, “rub sun lotion on my back? No? What about my front?”, gesturing to his lower parts.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Montes kisses a woman passionately.
  • Scantily clad women on Fun Island.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Drinking at a resort on Fun Island.
  • At the end, the crew all drink whisky to celebrate, including one who drinks out of a bottle.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • God knows
  • Hell
  • Shit
  • Arse
  • Bastard
  • Damn
  • Piss
  • Name calling such as:
    • Suckers
    • Dumb arse
    • Bitch
    • Arseholes
    • Idiot.

In a nutshell

Meg 2: The Trench is an action-adventure, science fiction movie. The film contains sustained violence and threat from very large, scary creatures and is therefore not suitable for children under 12. Parental guidance is also recommended for children aged 12 – 13, due to the high level of violence.

The main messages from this movie are to protect the environment; and to tackle problems one at a time.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Bravery and courage in the face of impossible odds
  • Persistence
  • Team work.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Driscoli and another scientist at Mana One betray their team for money. Why are people prepared to destroy others just for money?
  • Jonas was supposed to be protecting the planet but did a lot of damage to it fighting the Megalodons. Could there have been a better way to solve these problems?