Fiction vs. Fiction: Meg 2- The Trench (2023)

 I got a copy of the Book.  I watched the Film.

One is very different.

The Meg is about a Giant Shark.
The Trench is about another one.

Let's take a deep (get it?) look at the 1999 Book and the 2023 Film.

***VS***

What's the Same?

In the Book and Film, Jonas Taylor is an Undersea Expert who accidentally freed a Megalodon Shark.

He's back now because there's another Shark.

That's literally it.

What's Different?

The Film begins with a Segment showing a T-Rex eat some Dinosaurs, walk halfway into the water and then getting eaten by a Shark.

This is in THE FIRST BOOK and presented as a Lecture.  It just kind of happens in the Film.

The Film features Statham as Jonas and he's...fighting environmental crime?  In the Book, he's a broken man whose marriage is in trouble and lost a child to stillbirth.  

In the Book, the Shark in question is the baby from the last one.  In the Film, it is one that was discovered some other way.  It's also bioluminescent in the Book...and not in the Film.

It escapes in both versions.  It leaves because it is a Female and in Estus.

In the Book, it does mate with one Shark in the titular Trench...and immediately kills it.  It never mates in the Film (that we see).

Read the Book if you want a full page description of a 70 foot Shark mating with a 45 foot one.

The Book features a parallel Story involving Jonas tracking the Shark across the Ocean as it kills random people/whales, while his Wife Terry Taylor is stuck down in The Trench.

You see, there's an evil Billionaire named Benedict who's down there for e-vil reasons.  On top of that, there are a trio of Krononsauruses out there chomping on the subs.  His protege Celeste is trying to seduce Jonas to get the intel she needed.

In the Film, Jonas and company (no Terry, she was recast as Chinese and then killed off between Films) end up in The Trench and then go back to the surface.

There's a big showdown in the Trench involving the Shark, the Dinosaurs, betrayal, an incest reveal (thanks?) and Jonas reuniting with his Wife.  He's literally being chased by giant Sea Creatures in a one-man submersible at the bottom of the Ocean!

In the Film, three Sharks attack a Chinese Resort...like in the last Film.  There's also a Giant Squid and land Dinosaurs that somehow swam up from the Trench... I guess.

Jonas is never able to keep up with the Shark in the Book.  In the Film, he kills two of them.

Final Thoughts

Oh boy.  This isn't even the same thing.  At all!

The Film is a dumb, mostly enjoyable time.  It is a monster mash, featuring a trio of Sharks, a giant Octopus and random land dinosaurs.
It is just a shame that so much of it is a rehash, even with the creatures attacking a Chinese Resort again!

The Book is not exactly cerebral but is way more focused.  One giant Shark.  The Kronosaurus trio is a bonus.

The parallel Story features lots of twists and turns, big moments that feel like they should be in a Film and it all comes together.

If you're going to compare the two, there's no match.

I just bought a copy of the 3rd Book and I'm sure to read that more than watch a 3rd Film.

I know it isn't a Film and Statham is not in it, but seriously read the Book.  It's not amazing literature, but it is intense Shark action and pure insanity by the end.