The Shape of Water (2017) (Review and Discussion) (1 Viewer)

[Johnny Angell]

Beyond the “creature needs to go home” I find no similarities to ET. I do not think this is a remake of CFTBL either, beyond the creature design.

Saw the film this afternoon and did not like it as much as I thought I would.

Spoiler

I’m one of those people who hate to see animals mistreated or killed in a movie and I was really taken down by the killing of the cat

.

My wife raised a point after the movie when I said the creature indeed must be a god.

Spoiler

He has healing powers and gave the heroin gills. She reminded me that it was revealed she was found abandoned as a child or baby near a river. Could those neck scars be gills that didn’t form? Was she somehow part of the amphibian man’s species?

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Beyond the “creature needs to go home” I find no similarities to ET.

So the creature's ability to heal others didn't remind you of ET?

There are other connections, too, but that's a biggie...

 

[Johnny Angell]

So the creature's ability to heal others didn't remind you of ET?

There are other connections, too, but that's a biggie...

Film often portrays alien creatures as having healing powers. I’d be interested in reading the other connections you found.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Film often portrays alien creatures as having healing powers. I’d be interested in reading the other connections you found.

Perhaps, but when any movie after 1982 does this, it inevitably feels like a rip of "ET".

What movies pre-"ET" painted a close personal relationship between a human and an alien? An alien who needed to get home or he'd die? An alien who had god-like powers such as healing?

Not saying "Shape" is an overt "Mac and Me" style ripoff of "ET", but I can't ignore the many similarities...

 

[Billy Fogerty]

Sally Hawkins was ok. Why wasn't Michael Shannon nominated? He was the whole movie in my opinion.

 

[Tino]

Sally Hawkins was ok. Why wasn't Michael Shannon nominated? He was the whole movie in my opinion.

I thought Sally Hawkins was amazing.

I agree about Michael Shannon.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I thought Sally Hawkins was amazing.

I agree about Michael Shannon.

Same here. Hawkins was wonderful. Shannon was good.

 

[Mikael Soderholm]

Beyond the “creature needs to go home” I find no similarities to ET. I do not think this is a remake of CFTBL either, beyond the creature design.

Saw the film this afternoon and did not like it as much as I thought I would.

Spoiler

I’m one of those people who hate to see animals mistreated or killed in a movie and I was really taken down by the killing of the cat

.

My wife raised a point after the movie when I said the creature indeed must be a god.

Spoiler

He has healing powers and gave the heroin gills. She reminded me that it was revealed she was found abandoned as a child or baby near a river. Could those neck scars be gills that didn’t form? Was she somehow part of the amphibian man’s species?

That is an epic typo in your spoiler , not sure if I can type it for fear of spoiling though, but

Spoiler

'heroin gills' sounds awesome

 

[Johnny Angell]

That is an epic typo in your spoiler , not sure if I can type it for fear of spoiling though, but

Spoiler

'heroin gills' sounds awesome

Well, oops!

I would still like to read comments on the idea that is in spoiler.

 

[Hanson]

I would still like to read comments on the idea that is in spoiler.

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/co...hape-of-water-2017.352203/page-3#post-4566144

 

[Johnny Angell]

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/co...hape-of-water-2017.352203/page-3#post-4566144

Thank you, I had not read those posts because I hadn’t seen the movie. I missed the connection and even after her gills started working, I ascribed it to the idea that the amphibian was, as he was described at one point, a god. Ol’ dopey me.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Am I the only one who wants to call amphibian man, Gill Man? However, I still don’t consider this a remake of CFTBL.

 

[Jake Lipson]

This happened today:

http://deadline.com/2018/02/guiller...enced-by-1969-play-i-never-saw-it-1202298445/

I do hope Oscar voters are smart enough to not be influenced by this in casting their ballots, which is what the plaintiff seems to want by the timing of the suit.

 

[JSLasher]

I agree with TravisR , it is Creature from the black lagoon. The girl, the creature, and Shannon as Richard Carlson. So this really is not an original story. Another updated remake of a classic.

Regardless, it's a fine film. Loved Alexandre Desplat's superlative music score, which will hopefully win an Oscar®

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

This happened today:

http://deadline.com/2018/02/guiller...enced-by-1969-play-i-never-saw-it-1202298445/

I do hope Oscar voters are smart enough to not be influenced by this in casting their ballots, which is what the plaintiff seems to want by the timing of the suit.

He was never going to win for script, and I don't think it will influence the Best Director vote.

 

[PMF]

He was never going to win for script, and I don't think it will influence the Best Director vote.

Perhaps his chances for Best Screenplay would have increased had only he used the pen name of Gill Man Del Toro.
A further split in the ballots towards Mr. Del Toro's favor could also occur, were he to confuse the voters by changing the title with expedience to The Shape of Billboards, The Shape of Dunkirk, Call Me By Your Shape or even Darkest Water.
But, then again, such title changes could hurt him in the long run with the Zindel lawsuit.

 

[Mark Booth]

According to this article the 1969 play has more similarities to del Toro's story than the Deadline article would lead us to believe:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/23/entertainment/shape-water-copyright-suit/index.html

From the CNN article:

"She becomes fascinated by a fantastic intelligent aquatic creature, held captive in a glass tank," the suit states. "To the sounds of romantic vintage music playing on a record player, she forms a deep, loving bond with the creature, discovering that it can communicate -- but chooses to do so only with her."

Dolphin or not, if the play's cleaning woman is playing vintage music on a record player and she's the only one that can communicate with the creature, that seems like a pretty significant coincidence to me.

Mark

 

[Nelson Au]

I watched the blu ray of The Shape of Water, first time seeing the film. I had waited for the disc.

I went in with very little information about the film except it was a cross between The Creature from the Black Lagoon and Beauty and the Beast. And I had listened to a review on NPR back during its release that sounded very intriguing. So it was a title I really wanted to see. Up until now, I had only seen one other Del Toro film, Pacific Rim. A title I really liked, and I know it wasn’t widely liked. I also knew from the NPR review TSOW was a very different film.

I really liked it. I can identify with the idea of the outsiders, those who are marginalized be society by the powerful and mainstream. I liked that these characters overcame all the oppressive forces and the fairy tale nature of the film.

The production design was wonderful, very much in the period but also stylized a bit. And photographed so well. The score was also terrific. The two leads, Sally Hawkins and Doug Jones were terrific. I couldn’t place where I’d seen Michael Shannon before as he looked familiar. But I see he was General Zod, a similarly not very nice person. I had heard Richard Jenkin’s on Fresh Air but wasn’t too aware of his work. I of course had seen several of Octavia Spenser’s projects. Most recently Hidden Figures. Which made for some odd reconciliation in my head as she’s in two films set in the early 1960’s. I was only aware of Doug Jones from Star Trek Discovery and he’s very good in these roles as non-humans! The costume and make up for the Creature was terrific.

I’m glad it won the Academy Awards it won.

By the way, I haven’t seen Pan’s Labyrinth or Hellboy, but I seem to hear positive comments about Pan’s. Is it worth a look? I sort of want to watch The Creature From the Black Lagoon again, haven’t seen it in a few years.

 

[Worth]

I think Pan's Labyrinth is his best film. That and The Devil's Backbone. The Hellboy films are fun, but nowhere in the same league.

 

[DaveF]

Yep. Pan’s is brilliant. Hellboy is fun action, kinda on par with Pacific Rim.