Revenge of the Creature (1955) Review

"I hope you ain't going to blow up my boat, Mr. Johnson.  Like my wife, she's not much, but she's all I have."
-Lucas



A year after the previous film, a science expedition returns to the Black Lagoon and manages to capture the creature.  They transport it to Florida for further study.  The creature quickly becomes obsessed with one of the scientists,  Helen Dobson (Lori Nelson), and eventually breaks free to go after her.


What Works:

The underwater sequences look great.  It's absolutely impressive camerawork.  I have some criticisms of the underwater sequences, which I'll get to later, but they look great, that's for sure.

I have to give major props to Ricou Browning who plays the creature in the underwater sequences.  It's incredible to watch someone swimming in that big, rubber suit.  There are some really long takes of him swimming.  That can't have been easy.  He also gives the best performance of the film when he tries to break free of his chains.  It's the only time I felt any emotion while watching this movie.

Finally, I did enjoy the creature's escape sequence.  It actually has energy and is kinda fun.  I wish more of the movie had the energy this sequence had.


What Sucks:

The biggest problem with the movie is that it's incredibly boring.  Hardly anything happens.  The first half of the film is such a snooze-fest.  The creature should have escaped much earlier to give some urgency to the plot.  Half this movie is just scientists studying the creature and flirting.  It's not interesting in the slightest.

The characters also suck.  Only two get any development and it's minimal.  Our leads, Helen and Clete (John Agar), spend the whole movie flirting through an incredibly dull romance.  The only time they are remotely interesting is a scene where they discuss how woman have to choose between having a family or a career, while men don't have to make the choice.  That's an interesting discussion, but it never pays off.  They never go back to that scene.

Finally, as I mentioned above, I have problems with the underwater sequences.  They go on for too long and become boring.  I don't find underwater sequences interesting unless we can hear the characters talking, which usually isn't the case here.  They look great, but otherwise aren't interesting.


Verdict:

Revenge of the Creature is a disappointing sequel to say the least.  The underwater sequences look great, Ricou Browning is amazing, and there is one fun sequence, but the rest of the movie and the characters are painfully dull.

 3/10: Really Bad 

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