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The Meg Movie/ Is It Worth Seeing?

Don't swim where you are a top snack on the menu.

There is background for me in seeing this movie. It is based on a novel by a writer named Steve Alten. In 1995, we had the same agent in Los Angeles, Ken Atchity. Doubleday published a review copy of Steve's novel Meg. Ken Atchity asked me to look at the review copy from an editing point of view. The computer spelling correction program Doubleday used made a ton of mistakes, and I suggested other brevity changes. The book came out to limited success, and was not made into a movie until now. I'm glad it made it to the screen.

The movie is nothing like the original book, but was based on its concept. If you had read the original Jaws, which was a lousy book that had to be rewritten a zillion times, you would realize the movie made everyone afraid of swimming in the ocean forever (except for crazy people). I no longer go out over my knees. I like my limbs too much. 

The Meg is like Jaws in that respect. Something 75 feet long with teeth and jaws as wide and high as a C-130 ramp is nothing I want coming at me. The people in the movie don't seem to care. They are dedicated scientists with super gadgets supplied by a billionaire who wants to make more money, but pretends to be interested in saving people. Who would have guessed that?

Like the later Jaws movies, Meg seems to be on a personal vendetta to get all the people who star in the movie (Jason Statham) being the main one. The Meg could have swallowed Jaws with one bite. Coming from way down in the ocean, way, way down, it attacks anything with too much light, and follows a craft up a shaft of warm water to the surface, avoiding being exploded from the difference in depth pressure. Hey, it could happen.

The main thing about Meg is that it keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time. I love any movie that can do that. They tried to throw in some personal romance but it doesn't work in an all action movie. And this movie is nothing but action.

My wife Dorothy really gets into movies. She kicks and punches and yells and screams. Seeing a movie with her is an adventure in itself, especially if you have popcorn and a soda in your hand.

We arrived first for the matinee. Four people sat in front of us and three behind us. Dorothy forgot about the people behind us when she went into her action or creepy movie personality. I had to lean away when this giant shark attacked people on the beach, destroyed entire ships, ate half the characters, and killed anything it could stuff through its jaws. The special effects were brilliant.

In a Moby Dick like ending, we see a Captain Ahab Jason Statham climb aboard a 75 foot shark and stab it in the eye with something that looked like a sewing needle. Almost everyone dies in this movie, including Meg from the eye stab. Meg gets eaten by other smaller sharks. This proves that if you shed blood or stop moving in the ocean, something will eat you.

We waited until everyone else left before we cleaned up all the popcorn Dorothy had knocked from my hand, and I had to wipe spilled soda from my pants, and we had to find her glasses she lost during one of her mock seizure reactions to some action scene where she kicked out and smacked me in the head.

"Oh, hell," she said. "I forgot there were people behind us."
"They gave us a wide berth when they left," I said.

The Meg was fun, and for sure worth seeing if you love all action movies. I could watch it again and again because those are the kind of movies I really like: great special effects, a monster, and plenty of action sprinkled with not so smart characters. Great job.

From now on, I won't go above my ankle into the ocean.



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