Rating of
2/4
Creature Walks Among Us
Drive-In Massacre - wrote on 10/10/11
I've never been a "huge fan" of The Creature From the Black Lagoon, in fact I've only seen the first film in the series. Don't get me wrong, it is a classic, and it really is a lot of fun and an enjoyable cult-film, but not nearly as sophisticated, atmospheric, captivating, or visually beautiful as the other indelible Universal horror classics (although it is better than The Mummy). I originally planned to watch the second-installment of the franchise, Revenge of the Creature, but frankly, I was much more eager to see this one because of the concept where the film's title gets its name: The creature is found to be more human than assumed and is rendered incapable of going back into the water, now having to become accustomed to the above-sea world; maybe it was the absurdity of the idea, but it sounded more intriguing than the plot of the second film (basically terrorizing a seaport). However, what I got was a comfortable, quiet, static almost entirely useless first 40-minutes, where you get character development for characters no one cares about, and an extremely long and drawn-out explanation as to why the creature will eventually become more human, which you understand from the beginning. They don't even capture the creature until well after 30 minutes...when there is less than an hour left of the film. And although, this movie has probably the most poignant moments in the series - having the creature adjust to the outside world', I think the concept could have been exploited a lot more creatively. It just sort of ends right when you think its actually going somewhere.
D
