The Shape of Water: Review

‘The Shape of Water’ is one of my most anticipated films of 2018 as a whole. I am a huge Guillermo Del Toro fan with the Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy 1 & 2 being some of my all time favourite movies. When I first saw the trailer I was immediately in awe, my interest was at full attention.This review is pretty late as I have now seen this film 3 times in cinemas.

I can’t really keep going with out stating this out right here, as it will soon become very obvious. The reason this review so late is because I utterly adored this film and wanted to give it time before I review it just to be sure I wasn’t just being bias and overwhelmed but the views I had and have never diminished. It is without a doubt already one of my all time favourite movies, so with that out in the open, I will get in to the specifics of why this is the case.

Right off the bat, the first thing that will immediately come to your attention is the cinematography. Guillermo Del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy) and Dan Lausten (Silent Hill, Mimic) came together to deliver a film which rarely goes with out scene that could be paused and framed in an art gallery. Using lighting effects and colour theory to their advantage to not only depict a stunning visual, but to add depth to the story with these subtle elements.

Speaking of Del Toro, his direction through out ‘The Shape of Water’ is flawless, each action done for a reason, it is very obvious that this is a project that Guillermo has had in mind since childhood. Each element of the film flows seamlessly under his direction as a result of this, the visuals fit with the music, the actors all embody their roles perfectly and the world within this film feels completely fleshed out.

The actors performances are all award worthy, Sally Hawkins (Godzilla, Submarine) gives one of the most heart filled performances I have ever seen without saying a single word. She conveys a wide range of emotions all through her mannerisms and facial expressions and it is a joy to watch again and again. Doug Jones (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy) as the amphibious man is incredible, similarly to Hawkins portrays a wide range of emotions only with his mannerisms. Their romance as it blossoms through out the film had me completely invested. I fully cared for these characters because their performances where so strong, they did not feel like just characters. Michael Shannon (Man of Steel, Nocturnal Animals)was a truly intimidating antagonist, delivering what I feel is his best ever performance. He too was completely fleshed out and had me on edge, angered and shocked through out the feature. I could rave on and on about all the other great performances but this review would go on way too long.

The script works in tandem with the actors and direction to create an enthralling story from start to finish, taking it’s time in places where needed and ramping up the intensity as the story progresses. My one knit pick with the script is that I just wish there was more time spent on Elisa (Sally Hawkins) and the amphibious man first getting to know each other as this section of the film passes rather quickly. Perhaps this is me just wanting more time with these characters but that is the only thing that comes to mind as far as issues with the film go.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how incredible and ethereal the films soundtrack is. Each song is filled with wonder and whimsy as well as tension and fear when needed! Alexandre Desplat (The Grand Budapest Hotel, Godzilla) did an other worldly job with these compositions and he really added to the setting of early 60’s USA with his addition of re-arrangements of songs from that period!

The last thing I want to explain, is why I am reviewing this on a horror blog. Despite Del Toro’s track record, the inclusion of a monster and moments of tension and dread, this is not what most people would consider a horror movie but a romantic fantasy thriller. Despite this, it is still a highly relevant film to horror due to it’s influence and roots coming from 1954’s ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’ (and other horror films of that period) as well as the overall nature of the horror of Michael Shannon’s intense and menacing performance as the film’s true monster in Col. Strickland. Perhaps ‘The Shape of Water’ is not a horror film in the modern sense, but I feel it is in the traditional Universal monster sense and in the way it moved myself as a huge horror and monster movie fan.

I’m going to give ‘The Shape of Water’ 98%, a near perfect movie!

Have you seen the movie? What did you think about it? I know I have a very high opinion of this movie but I know not everone will feel the same way and that is fine. Share your thoughts on ‘The Shape of Water’ below! and if you haven’t seen it yet, you should. Check out the trailer below!

The Cloverfield Paradox: Review

So yesterday we were surprised with the latest instalment of the Cloverfield franchise in ‘The Cloverfield Paradox’. I loved the first two, despite their very different formats and settings. In this latest instalment our story takes place on a space station where our main protagonists are working to create a new and unlimited stream of power for the world below who are currently going through a world wide power shortage. That’s all I will tell you, you can find out more from the film itself which is out now on Netflix!

The cast of this film is the strongest element in my opinion, particularly in Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Black Mirror) as our central protagonist, Hamilton. We are given the most back story on Hamilton, understanding her reasoning for making certain decisions due to traumas she has been through in the past.

There are elements of the story that are truly attention grabbing such as the heated exchanges between stressed and angry characters, perilous situations on Earth and in the Cloverfield satellite and certain plot twists that take place through out the later acts of the film.
However, I could not help but notice that the film as a whole appears to have originally been created without intention of being included in the Cloverfield universe and certain scenes, new footage and dubbed over dialogue were added in later on to tie it all in to the universe. While ’10 Cloverfield Lane’ had a good portion of it’s script come from a different project, the film as a whole was still created as a full film as opposed to adding on extra details to an already nearly complete movie to fit it in to an established franchise. Aside from this, I feel the pacing of the film was rather messy, as things seemed to go rather slow before speeding up and screeching to halt again. Despite these issues which I fully accept are there, I did enjoy the story as a whole thanks to strong performances from the cast.

Visually the film look very good, the special effects are vivid and impressive but they do suffer from looking a little too clean and polished as opposed to having the pre-existing, lived in aesthetic that allows CGI rendered objects to look highly realistic.

All in all, I would say ‘The Cloverfield Paradox’ is by far the weakest in the series, mainly due to the fact that it wasn’t originally intended for the series in the first place. All in all I still enjoyed this film as weakest but by no means bad entry in the franchise.

I give ‘The Cloverfield Paradox’ 63%.

Thanks for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed it! If you have’t yet, you can check out the trailer that dropped just before the film’s release below!