Enjoyable and well-made, there's just this sense that we've sort of seen it before.

Rating: 8/10 (17 February 2018)

'The Shape Of Water (2018)' shares similarities with Del Toro's earlier work, especially 'Pan's Labyrinth (2006)', and suffers ever so slightly because of it, notably when it comes to its forcefully 'ambiguous' end which necessarily doesn't work with the overtly (and perfectly fine) fantasy narrative laid out before it. There is also the issue that its central romance does boil down to a relationship between a human and an animal. It works fine as an allegory but in the piece as it is presented, its a bit weird. The film is a competently made one, though, and you feel in safe hands throughout, with the calm and more wholesome moments nicely counterpointed by the director's trademark outbursts of brutal violence. In fact, the flick seems like a culmination of all that this film-maker has done before, not enough to best his prior work but enough to fit nicely alongside it. Despite being a pretty generic fairy-tale at its core, it feels like it has something to say. However, it doesn't let that get in the way of it telling its entertaining story. Its very enjoyable and just as well-made. 8/10