Creature from the Black Lagoon

'Creature from the Black Lagoon' is an entertaining flick from 1954. For a film made so long ago, it really does age nicely. Sure some of the ways used to bring the creature to life look a little dorky in patches, but for the most part I felt the required creepiness - especially via the creature's face. It has the feel of a very well made production, which is little surprise given it's a Universal production of course. I also like how it has a sense of knowledge to it, who knows if it all adds up but it sounds the part at least. I enjoyed the cast, they all work well together onscreen. Richard Carlson, Julie Adams and Richard Denning are naturally the standouts, though I also found Nestor Paiva to be decent. Interesting to note that two people played the Gillman, with Ben Chapman on land and Ricou Browning underwater. The start of a trilogy, I'm keen to check out the two sequels.

Classic Universal Monster Tale, reflects a sense of Originality! The Gill Man unlike a lot of monsters at the time came from an original and fresh idea, whereas monsters like Frankenstein, the Wolfman and Dracula have appeared in various fiction, including there own films. Even to this day, the costume design is top notch and the underwater sequences are impressive considering the time. The Gill Man's characteristics may mirror King Kong but he's still an awesomely designed monster. If this is your first time watching this, please consider the time period and DONT compare it to modern films. The Gill Man is often overshadowed by his older brothers like Dracula, Wolfman and Frankenstein but he deserves more spotlight, he was familiar but original and its a monster flick that still entertains to this day.

One of the original creature-features, Creature from the Black Lagoon is a classic that gets flack for the wrong reasons. While the first act opens strong with setup, it quickly devolves from there, becoming a redundant loop of (admittedly well done) underwater fights with little character development. The costuming (or, practical effects) is actually solid from the neck down – the weakness comes in the form of painted eyes and stiff movements when it’s on land specifically (swimming looks great). It also would’ve been to the benefit to show less of the creature just to build some tension. Overall, it’s a classic I’d recommend everyone watch at least once. More than likely, one of your favorite’s is derived from this very film.

It’s very slow, mostly them just looking for the creature which you already know exists so the build-up isn’t especially suspenseful. The film has high production value, it has a really beautiful look to the film and sounds good too but the music cues are repetitive. The 3D mostly works fine but didn’t add enough to the film. The characters are all forgettable except the ship’s captain who is pretty awesome. Some of the acting of the smaller roles is awful. They all move and react so slowly and it’s so repetitive. It hasn’t aged well. The creature’s hand just keeps slowly reaching again and again. The creature costume is actually really cool. If you want to watch something similar, watch Anaconda (1997) or Frankenfish (2004) instead.

Wow, This is an awfully boring movie that features very little of the titular creature but instead focuses on a painfully boring plot and wooden characters. This could have been so much better than what it was.