Enchanting but daft!

Rating: 8/10 (22 February 2018)

Back in the 1950s we used to see sci-fi movies like THE QATERMASS EXPERIMENT and I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE, shot on desperately low budgets but satisfyingly scary for their time - more than a little daft. THE SHAPE OF WASTER is a 'throwback' to that era
Guillermo del Toro is not new to 'creature features' or, as he would prefer to call them, fairy tales for adults. There are some very adult scenes in this movie - a pity in a way since it excludes the younger audience who would be enchanted by it. The theme is not too far removed from Spielberg's E.T. or CLOSE ENCOUNTERS with Elisa replacing the children captivated (captured, even) by aliens. Michael Shannon's brutal facility chief is the equivalent of the Nazi bounty-hunters in an Indiana Jones adventure. There's also a good-guy professor, and Sally Hawkins has a sassy sidekick in fellow cleaning-lady Olivia Spencer.
For all the wondrous CGI and make-up, the Creature is still visibly an actor (Doug Jones) wrapped in plastic. The budget was clearly awesome. I'm not sure that it really deserves to be getting all these Awards and Nominations. I couldn't help remembering all those 1950s sci-fi horrors. Yes, it's a beguiling fantasy romance but it's also totally - epically - daft.