Overrated But Still Pretty Good

Rating: 7/10 (22 January 2018)

Although there were some flaws, I felt this movie was unique in many ways. It captured the '60s feel gorgeously and had a sort of BioShock feel to it. What this film did was take a cliché theme (loving someone for who they truly are on the inside) and turn it into something fresh. By the end of the film, it means something much more than that, actually. The movie does a good job keeping you hooked in the beginning. Once the creature is rescued though, it slows down quite a bit, only to build up to a ending that seems lackluster given the message they're trying to convey. Beyond that, there are only a few things that bothered me during the film. Let me start off by saying I really enjoy Michael Shannon as an actor, I think he's one of the most underrated actors in the business right now. It's not that I have a huge problem with him in this film, it's just his character was a little too much of an archetype for me to really connect with. Also, some of his lines of dialogue are just corny. At the very end where he says he always pulls through and delivers or something like that was silly to me. Who actually says those things? It's just bad writing. And again, the whole scene where General Hoyt threatens him to retrieve the specimen is just cringe worthy to me. Other problems were just issues of logic, which honestly seems to be a big problem for GDT (seriously, just watch The Strain and you'll know what I'm talking about). When Elisa fills up the bathroom with water... there's no way in hell that could ever possibly happen, in that setting at least. I understand it's a movie involving an amphibian creature with superpowers but, we're still on Earth here. All in all, the movie was a good experience. It was a nice shake up in the romance genre and it really does have a deep meaning behind its cliché theme. I'd definitely recommend it to someone just looking for a really solid and enjoyable watch.