The Shape of Water - Guillermo del Toro

my wife is harping on me to get this...I will, I will...as I can't wait either.

 

didn't you see it at the bottom of the lake?

 

The 1st thing this comic book geek thought when I saw the fish man was about a Marvel group called the Inhumans. Triton!!!

 

I just got back from this. It looks damn good, and the performances are also solid, Sally Hawkins being the standout, but...Best Picture? I get that it's supposed to be a fantasy, a fairy tale, but come on!

Spoiler

A show-stopping, black and white old-style Hollywood dance sequence? The heroine has sex with an amphibian? And then tells her bestie about it the next day? She hangs out in the lab and gets to know the creature and although the place is crawling with guards and a paranoid security chief, only one person ever sees this? Cameras everywhere, but not in the one place where they are most needed?

I found this film unconvincing and preposterous. Beautifully made, gorgeous to look at, enjoyable in parts, but preposterous. There's something in here about the late 50s, the Cold War, "who the monsters really were," some inversion of the Creature From The Black Lagoon, etc., that del Toro is aiming at, but I don't think he connects. I was surprised by absolutely nothing I saw in this movie (except maybe that scene with the cat). Sally Hawkins keeps this from going over the edge into complete self-parody, so I'll give her that. I just don't get all the praise for the movie as a whole.

 

I saw it tonight and I thought it was really good, a mash up of Beauty and the Beast and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. It's basically a fairy tale with gruesome features. The sets are so highly stylized, you know that's what you're getting.

 

It's driving me crazy--portions of the menu stay on the 4K version when i'm playing this. Wonder if anyone else has this problem and it's a disc problem or a firmware problem?

 

I didn't take it that way. I saw this as what Del Toro would have done with Creature From The Black Lagoon if HE had made it--a variation on Beauty and The Beast in a modern setting. It takes the suspension of disbelief from the era the film is set in--like a Hitchcock film where preposterous things happen yet we are supposed to buy it. So not only is it set in that era but the filmmaking and suspension of disbelief harkens back to that era as well.

As a valentine to classic Hollywood in its own way, it worked for me. Of course Del Toro's films always have some elements that are pretty fantastic and difficult to believe.

 

Question ; I saw "Shape"in the movies a few months ago, and watched the DVD this weekend. I can't remember if when some charactes are speaking in Russian, were those scenes subitled ? On the DVD, the substitles do not show up, even when I attempt to activate hm in the menu (Of course Eliza's signing is substitled - I think that is burned into the film .

 

I used the word “junk” but preposterous” does quite nicely. Further proof that intelligence in the American cinema is dead in the 2000s. If something is shot with lots of Bokeh, is color-tinted correctly, and the CGI actually looks good… then you’re the next Akira Kurosawa. Oh, the final element is that you borrow most of your work from someone else and call it a “tribute” sort of like “Stranger things” or “Westworld” or from a Marvel comic, or “Let me hear you Whisper,” I mean, “The shape of water”.

 

I don't recall them being subtitled.

 

What, exactly, beyond the fact that this is a fairly typical fairy tale styled story and the fact that there's a Gillman in it, is "borrowed". If you're referring to the lawsuit associated with a largely forgotten Broadway play that Del Toro could not possibly have seen or known about, the tropes of that story are pretty common. This seemed like an extension on "Creature From The Black Lagoon" except how Del Toro would have liked to see the story end. This is a fairytale. Do fairly tales always stand up to logic? No. Do ALL films? No. I has to do with the type of story your telling, the ability to suspend disbelief. It goes all the way back historically to films as early as the 1920's. Was "The Wizard of Oz" preposterous? This isn't proof of intelligence in the American cinema being dead (there's dozens of examples including "Transformers" and other films of that ilk that you could use to argue that point). It's a fairytale designed for adults and a fantasy that uses the Cold War setting as a backdrop.

 

Loved it - solidly in the top five of last year, American or otherwise.

 

You have seen every film from every country in 2017 ???

 

As I recall, at one point, Del Toro was interested in remaking this before Shape of Water although he probably would have gone in a similar direction to Shape. I'm sure that he probably had to pay something to Universal otherwise they would have sued him since he was very open about wanting to make it his way (particularly since he was very open about his inspiration for "Shape"). So, to your point, perhaps he floated it down to the Creature...of course that would be after he checked into who peed in the pool.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ssNxqg91iAk/SWWf1tq1ylI/AAAAAAAAAH4/L94Abj7SUGc/s400/CreaturePeed.jpg

If you ever look at pictures of the creature from the first and second film, you'll notice some interesting changes to the design of the suit. It was streamlined quite a bit.

 

Finally saw "Shape of Water" when it hit Blu-ray last week. I enjoyed it, as I have all of Del Toro's recent films. The guy is so enthusiastic about making films and is so meticulous, it's impossible to not at least find most of his films intriguing.

Having seen it now, I'm pretty surprised this got a Best Picture win. Let me be clear, I've only seen a hand full of the Best Picture nominees. I also don't think "Get Out" should have won. That was *another* interesting, intriguing film with some goofy, campy elements that preclude it from even entering "Best Picture" status in my mind.

Frankly, I think the already-forgotten "Crimson Peak" from 2015 was probably more intriguing than "The Shape of Water."

 

Yes. I have MoviePass.

 

Saw this on the way to Hawaii
Very disappointing, too long, derivative. I actually fast forwarded near the end

Octavia was really good, I'll give them that. And yes, wonderful to look at.

 

: )

 

I saw Crimson Peak at the theater and was left cold. I revisited it on DVD to give it a 2nd chance, but felt the same way. My least favorite Del Toro.

 

Shape of Water. Best picture?...please. A trite message about outsiders finding love plus a bunch of overly-cute genre mixing. The 5th best film of any year in the 1970s wipes the floor with Shape of Water. Take a look at the Oscar nominees for those years and tell me if I'm wrong.

 

You kids get off my lawn!!

 

Darn right!

 

I finally got around to seeing this, watched it twice this weekend. Is is Oscar worthy of Best Picture? probably not however I was fully engaged and entertained for both viewings. I'd give it a solid 4/5.

 

Wouldn't watch it even free of charge.

 

Liked it. Still feel Phantom Thread was the best film of the year.