Overvalued. Visually engaging, bereft of anything enjoyable.

Rating: 2/10 (3 May 2018)

SPOILER: So, the visual appeal of the film is unquestionable.
***Spoiler alert***
First, the film packs a ridiculous number of issues into the work that the writer/director treats as fundamental to the plot, using annoying characters that serve no purpose except to highlight themes: homophobia, racism, misogyny, perversion, classism, nationalism, anti-authoritarianism, Cold War fear, respect for the impaired, etc.
Next, the sheer repulsiveness of various devices in the film (the fingers, the beheaded cat) are again, there just to be there. They symbolize nothing and as plot devices, do little except to make viewers say "Ew". Sure, the cat leads to a wound that is then healed to show the miraculous power of the creature, but what for? To show it can't die at the end? That's it? Nothing explored there, and that seems to be the rest of the film in a nutshell. What is explored probably shouldn't have been and what isn't seems far more tantalizing than the story that's told.
The big thing however, is that the heroine, trying to save the life of a creature, falls in lust with it - NOT love. When we finally see her gills and realize she belongs to the aquatic world (which is patently obvious from the moment we see the marks on her neck), we're supposed to believe she belongs with this creature. Yet, nothing in the film gives the creature any intellect or heart, or evokes even a modicum of pathos for a SENTIENT being. Perhaps for a puppy, sure. Basically, she's engaging in bestiality, she may as well have had sex with a carp. There is no difference, yet we're supposed to believe that she shares a special kinship with the thing because it can play fetch and they both come from the sea. I come from the land and though I've seen quite a few attractive sheep, I've never actually crossed that line.
Boring, confused in its goals, and generally painful to watch, it not only failed to suck me into its world, it made me want to leave it and never return.