Swamp Thing(1981) was better

That's because the swamp in "Man-Thing" is a studio set whereas the swamp in "Swamp Thing" was an actual location, shot at Cypress Gardens, just north of Charleston, South Carolina. The creature in "Man-Thing" (shown in the last 20 minutes) absolutely blows away the guy-in-a-rubber-suit in "Swamp-Thing." The sets, atmosphere and cinematography of "Man-Thing" are also better than "Swamp-Thing," not to mention the vibe's not as goofy. As for the story, I would say they're about equal.

Although the plot for "Man-Thing" is great, the story itself barely holds your attention after the first half hour (until the final 20 minutes) and is unnecessarily convoluted with pointless characters. The middle-hour is wasted on various characters hanging out in the swamp for one reason or another, half of them getting picked off by the creature. I'm sure they did this to show-off the cool swamp sets and lighting, etc., but they forgot the most important part -- an interesting story and characters. This makes no sense since Steve Gerber's run on the comic contains a wealth of great material for compelling scripts.

Unfortunately, the film deviates too far from Man-Thing's original concept. Some new ideas introduced are great -- like the way the creature looks and horrifically attacks people -- but where's Manny's empathic nature? And why does Manny kill people indistinguishably? For instance, the creature kills a noble native at one point and later threatens the two protagonists of the story. The Man-Thing never did this in the comics.