Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) Review

"We didn't come here to fight monsters."
-Dr. David Reed



Deep in the Amazon, Dr. Carl Maia (Antonio Moreno) discovers a strange fossil of a mysterious creature.  He returns to civilization to form an expedition.  They return to find the rest of Dr. Maia's team dead and soon find themselves trapped in the unknown Black Lagoon, where a amphibious-humanoid resides and he isn't happy that he has visitors.


What Works:

Creature from the Black Lagoon is a fun film and a solid addition to the Universal Monsters.  I really like the jungle setting for the movie and even though it was mostly filmed at a studio, it felt authentic enough for me to be drawn in.  I also really like that the story is mostly set on board a boat.  I like movies that use only a few locations.  I find it more engaging.

This film has tons of underwater shots, which I have have more to say about later, but I must admit, they look great.  The images are beautiful and the film is absolutely a technical marvel.  

The creature itself may look a little silly, but I still like it.  I have to give Ricou Browning props for doing all of the underwater scenes with the creature.  It's really impressive stuff.  Best of all is the fight between the creature and Dr. Mark Williams (Richard Denning).  It's actually a really tense sequence and very exciting.

Finally, I like that the filmmakers didn't just brush over the scientific aspects of the film.  These characters are scientists and they speak like it.  They could have easily just sidestepped most of the scientific dialogue, but they delve right into it.  I don't know how accurate what the characters said actually is, but I appreciate that the writers didn't cop-out.


What Sucks:

I mentioned the underwater scenes above and there are a lot of them.  While they looked great, I find underwater scenes where the characters can't speak to be incredibly boring.  The best example I can think of is the James Bond film, Thunderball.  The scuba diving scenes are incredibly boring and I can't help but lose interest.

There are also a few boring parts on land as well.  If the creature isn't attacking, what's happening on screen isn't all that interesting.

Finally, the characters aren't very well developed.  I didn't really care about them and I wish we had gotten a few more scenes dedicated to developing them.  I really wasn't that invested in if they got out of the Black Lagoon alive or not.


Verdict:

Creature from the Black Lagoon is a decent entry in the Universal Monsters.  It's no Frankenstein or The Invisible Man, but it's certainly superior to The Mummy.  The underwater shots look great, I appreciated the setting and the dialogue, and the creature itself was fun, but there were a few too many boring parts and the characters weren't all that interesting.  It's still a classic film and has certainly got it going on.

 7/10: Good   

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