'Revenge' of the Creature
Alright, so I absolutely love the first Creature film. It had elements way ahead of its time and was very enjoyable all the way through. You can't help but smile every time at some of the great shots in the first, especially those with his webbed hands reaching out.
But compared to the first, this one is absolute trash. First off, all of the atmosphere? Gone. Good old Gill gets placed in a sterile, lame tank for the majority of the film. This also takes away from the opportunity for good scare scenes, or even attacks at all. The one attack where he tries to steal the woman and rips the guy's mask off is a highlight, but scenes like this are few and far between. Instead, the Gill Man is kidnapped from his home, chained up in a small tank, and constantly shocked with a prod and hurt. After he leaves captivity and tries to get back at the people who did that to him, he gets shot. Not a whole lot of "revenge" going on. And even after all of this, if he'd have had his revenge in the end in a satisfying way it would have been fine, but most of the satisfaction in the final scene comes from the single shot where he flips over the car.
With most everything that made the first film great gone, what's left? A bad love story between two unlikable characters. I'm not the kind to bash a 50s movie for having 50s values, but am I seriously supposed to get pulled into this love story that's just one shallow scene after another? The woman is not even a character, as the movie itself puts it, she's just the "pretty young scientist" and is completely ditzy despite her supposed level of education to fit with the female standard. I wouldn't even complain about this if it had been on the sideline to more than a small handful of actual horror moments, but it really seems like the main story here and it's a shame.
At best I can give it a 6/10 because I love the creature too much to bash his movie, but that's being generous.
Other opinions are welcome, I wouldn't mind hearing what someone who liked it had to say as long as they can back up what they're saying.
It's not over, everybody betrayed me! I'm fed up with this world!