Meg 2: The Trench (**)

Water-logged shark sequel starts off fine and concludes with a reasonably fun 20 minute finale — but everything inbetween is a dull, lifelessly directed affair.

Jason Statham and about half the original cast — plus their writers — return for another go-around though not, tellingly, director Jon Turtletaub, who’s replaced here — ineffectively — by British indie horror auteur Ben Wheatley. Wheatley struggles to get any tension going during the movie’s endless mid-section in “The Trench” where Statham and friends run afoul of an evil corporation mining for precious materials along the bottom of the dangerous ocean floor — in fact, it’s so bland the actors look like they’re wandering through sets and delivering lines with the least amount of energy possible given their supposedly dire circumstances. The dark sets, unexciting creatures, and lack of suspense might even make you feel like you’re watching a rerun of “Leviathan” — only not as good (is that even possible?).

Once things return to the surface, the movie reasonably recycles the effects-filled conclusion of its predecessor with a few additional prehistoric beasties on land as the tourist-saturated “Fun Island” is besieged by multiple “Megs” — finally delivering the absurd action fans expect (and there are a couple of fun homages to “Jaws 2”), but it’s all too long in coming to offset the tedium that came before. It also leads you to wonder — why not just set this sequel completely there to begin with? Why not have fun with the premise and have Statham be running the resort or something absurd along those lines? “Meg 2” shows so little ingenuity and cinematic energy that it comes off as nearly a contractual obligation for all involved — a sequel almost completely without bite.