Not bad but derivative and therefore predictable.

Rating: 3/10 (28 February 2018)

It was a Guillermo del Toro picture so of course it looked great. A darkly lit and textured movie that made the plastic of the 1950's/60's look organic. The acting was great and the sound very good. The only problem with this movie was that I saw it already. I saw it in 1982 when my parents took me to see E.T. and again in 1984 when I saw Splash with Tom Hanks. I know the story of the movie five minutes in. Big evil scary Army/Government gets their hands on a creature different than us humans. The mistreat it and torture it and of course this makes the creature unresponsive, angry, and sad. Then a childlike, loner (I mean lonely. Ever notice how people who are alone, mad, and crazy are loners and people who are alone but nice, gentle, and friendly are simply just... alone?) loner comes along who can connect with the creature, forms a bond, and then helps said creature. Like I said, a good movie but one I've seen before.
It's hard to perform without speaking and Sally Hawkins pulls it off nicely. Her face was full of expression and I like the way the subtitles during her sign language were handled. Richard Jenkins was like the breath you take after being under water to long. He was funny and human instead of being the stereotypical "villain or hero or sidekick". I thought he was the best part. Everyone acted well but they were all stereotypical. Not the fault of the actors but rather the fault of the writer.
A good movie and if you have two hours to kill go ahead and watch it. You may like it a lot. After all it's nominated for an Oscar. However, like I said, it's derivative and therefore predictable.