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SimplyScripts Screenwriting Discussion Board    Reviews    Movie, Television and DVD Reviews  ›  Shape of Water Moderators: Nixon
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Scar Tissue Films
Posted: March 11th, 2018, 4:19pm Report to Moderator
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Decided to check out the Oscar winner.

I'm a huge fan of GDT so I expected good things.

It's filmed in the usual extravagant style you've come to expect and features a lively central performance from the mute lead.

That was where the positives ended for me. I found it absolute drivel.

A very boring, poor man's Beauty of the Beast wrapped up in typically repellant Marxist/Liberal propaganda.

Just one of those films that you can't for the life of you work out why someone would like it.

Pure garbage. Gave me a couple of laughs due to the absurdly of it, but that was it for me.

Regrettably I'm very much at odds with what's considered good storytelling these days.

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Scar Tissue Films  -  March 11th, 2018, 4:46pm
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AnthonyCawood
Posted: March 11th, 2018, 4:48pm Report to Moderator
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I loved it, fits my liberal sensibilities perfectly and it is beautifully shot as well, so I must be in sync with what's considered good storytelling at the mo

Heard a few people make Beauty & the Beast comparisons... don't buy it at all, the only plot similarities are there's a monster (ridiculously common trope) and a woman who falls for him (ridiculously common trope) and an antagonist who want to kill the best (RCT).

In B&B the beast is a man who's been turned into an animal for being bad, in SoW the monster is a river god, so there are no real similarities there. In B&B the female (Belle) volunteers to serve the beast to save her father, no such thing in SoW. In SoW she helps the monster escape and they go on the run, in B&B the end is vastly different.

I'm sure there are films that influenced this (what stories aren't influenced by others?), but I'd suggest that you need look no further than Hellboy 2 to see the genesis of the idea and even one of the key casting decisions.

GDT should be applauded for doing something different, and he has been.


Anthony Cawood - Award winning screenwriter
Available Short screenplays - http://www.anthonycawood.co.uk/short-scripts
Available Feature screenplays - http://www.anthonycawood.co.uk/feature-film-scripts/
Screenwriting articles - http://www.anthonycawood.co.uk/articles
IMDB Link - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm6495672/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
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Warren
Posted: March 11th, 2018, 4:50pm Report to Moderator
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Pan's Labyrinth is my favourite movie of all time so I wanted to love this, I really did.

Got to say I agree that it was a steaming turd, I mean WTF?

I would never watch this again, and definitely wouldn’t recommend anyone check it out.


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AnthonyCawood
Posted: March 11th, 2018, 4:56pm Report to Moderator
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Which is what makes the world such an interesting place, differences of opinions, and I've already seen it 3 times


Anthony Cawood - Award winning screenwriter
Available Short screenplays - http://www.anthonycawood.co.uk/short-scripts
Available Feature screenplays - http://www.anthonycawood.co.uk/feature-film-scripts/
Screenwriting articles - http://www.anthonycawood.co.uk/articles
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Pale Yellow
Posted: March 11th, 2018, 7:08pm Report to Moderator
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I loved it so much.

I loved the characters.

I loved the monster. I loved the irony in that the man was more a monster than the monster.

I loved the mute character.

The cinematography was beautiful to me.

The monster was a little hokey looking but it worked for me.

I would watch it ten times.
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AnthonyCawood
Posted: March 11th, 2018, 7:32pm Report to Moderator
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Totally agree Dena


Anthony Cawood - Award winning screenwriter
Available Short screenplays - http://www.anthonycawood.co.uk/short-scripts
Available Feature screenplays - http://www.anthonycawood.co.uk/feature-film-scripts/
Screenwriting articles - http://www.anthonycawood.co.uk/articles
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Scar Tissue Films
Posted: March 11th, 2018, 10:46pm Report to Moderator
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Quoted from Warren
Pan's Labyrinth is my favourite movie of all time so I wanted to love this, I really did.

Got to say I agree that it was a steaming turd, I mean WTF?

I would never watch this again, and definitely wouldn’t recommend anyone check it out.


Yeah, it was terrible on every level, from the clichéd predictable plot, to the lame lala land nostalgia, to the awful one dimensional characters and the complete lack of anything like a coherent story (they seemed to be experimenting on a fish man to get ahead in the Space Race.. Wtf?).

That's without mentioning all the laughable plot holes and the politics that you're bashed over the head with (Communists are great guys, forget the hundreds of millions that are dead... It's White America that's the big problem).

I watched it with four other people and everyone was gobsmacked at how retarded it was.

If Trump wants to make America great again, he should start with Hollywood.  
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Scar Tissue Films
Posted: March 11th, 2018, 10:59pm Report to Moderator
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Some of the reviews have given me a good laugh, though.


My favourite was seeing it described as not Finding Nemo, but Grinding Nemo.

There's always a silver lining.
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AnthonyCawood
Posted: March 12th, 2018, 2:36am Report to Moderator
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Everyone is entitled to their opinion... but Scar are you sure you watched the same film?

The film very clearly sets out to show that the Communists are just as bad as Conservative America, neither side care about the creature both are more concerned with one-upping the other to the point that both will quite happily kill the sentient being.

It's people, not regimes, that are the focus of the story.


Anthony Cawood - Award winning screenwriter
Available Short screenplays - http://www.anthonycawood.co.uk/short-scripts
Available Feature screenplays - http://www.anthonycawood.co.uk/feature-film-scripts/
Screenwriting articles - http://www.anthonycawood.co.uk/articles
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DustinBowcot
Posted: March 12th, 2018, 4:53am Report to Moderator
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Never heard of it. If it's an Oscar winner then it's definitely a pile of shite... goes without saying. They're a bunch of pretentious, bullshitty, vampiric pricks. What do they know outside of their little bubbles? Like an Oscar actually means something. It's something used as a political instrument... just a part of the propaganda we're constantly brainwashed with.... and that's what's so sickening about hardcore 'liberals'. It's the biggest hypocrisy of all. At least the Far Right are more honest. Not that they aren't mentally fucked too. They're mentally fucked because they have chosen a side... selected one of the options on offer... on offer by our glorious government and the society created off the back of slavery. Not just black slavery, but economic slavery. By controlling the economy of the world we essentially allot every citizen on the planet a value. This is also what fiat currency is based on... it's not based on fresh air as some believe but, rather, the value of human life.

That's not the scary part. With the onset of AI and robotic slavery, the value of human life has dropped, which means that billions will have to die. If that is true, and push really comes to shove... which side are you on? We're already responsible for killing millions of Africans and keeping much of the Middle East effed up so we can harvest the resources easier. The surplus just aren't dying fast enough. Tried ebola, but it started coming over here so we needed to make a cure... what can be done? How can billions be wiped out and it look natural? War, perhaps? But, really, why? Why should the developed world need to destroy each other, when the undeveloped world is brimming with peeps?
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Scar Tissue Films
Posted: March 12th, 2018, 5:45am Report to Moderator
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Quoted from AnthonyCawood
Everyone is entitled to their opinion... but Scar are you sure you watched the same film?

The film very clearly sets out to show that the Communists are just as bad as Conservative America, neither side care about the creature both are more concerned with one-upping the other to the point that both will quite happily kill the sentient being.

It's people, not regimes, that are the focus of the story.


Dmitri, the Soviet spy.
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AnthonyCawood
Posted: March 12th, 2018, 5:53am Report to Moderator
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Dimitri is defined by his humanity, not that he's a spy, he rebels against his handlers as they are no better than the Americans who are supposed to be his enemy.


Anthony Cawood - Award winning screenwriter
Available Short screenplays - http://www.anthonycawood.co.uk/short-scripts
Available Feature screenplays - http://www.anthonycawood.co.uk/feature-film-scripts/
Screenwriting articles - http://www.anthonycawood.co.uk/articles
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Scar Tissue Films
Posted: March 12th, 2018, 6:02am Report to Moderator
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Still a lousy Commie.
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AnthonyCawood
Posted: March 12th, 2018, 6:46am Report to Moderator
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Anthony Cawood - Award winning screenwriter
Available Short screenplays - http://www.anthonycawood.co.uk/short-scripts
Available Feature screenplays - http://www.anthonycawood.co.uk/feature-film-scripts/
Screenwriting articles - http://www.anthonycawood.co.uk/articles
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ReaperCreeper
Posted: March 12th, 2018, 1:52pm Report to Moderator
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Well, I enjoyed it. Loved it, even.

That said, I tempered my expectations well beforehand, having been horribly, horribly disappointed with Del Toro's previous effort (Crimson Peak).

I thought The Shape of Water was extremely well-made. You could really feel that it was a passion project. Every single character, major and minor, had their own distinctive and memorable narrative arcs, which I feel is regrettably becoming a bit of a lost art, particularly in genre pictures. They're all defined by the flaws in their humanity, not by their archetypes or their professions (though some of the characters, I think, would prefer that). There's no obvious canon fodder in the film, and I love it for that.

The ending was a bit of rip-off of The Shadow Over Innsmouth (or the movie "Dagon," if you're more familiar with that). But it didn't bother me too much, since the entire film was really a Lovecraftian tribute with a romantic and political spin.

Anyone expecting a straight up monster flick from this will be woefully disappointed, but I'm familiar enough with Del Toro's work that the film I got was exactly the film I expected to get.

That said, I don't think it's a perfect film. It's predictable at times, and the relationship between the lead and the fish-man didn't feel as strong as it could've (more scenes devoted to them before they fall in love would've been welcome). Del Toro's politics also shine through it quite strongly and frequently, which I feel will inevitably repel some viewers. Personally, I've come to terms with the fact that I just don't always agree with the man, his politics rarely ever affect my enjoyment of his films.

I do have to scratch my head a bit at the people straight up saying it's a turd or total shit. At the very least, one would be remiss not to mention the movie's impeccable attention to detail, cinematography, and aesthetic quality. Truly bad movies simply don't have that level of care put into them. And yes, I do get it -- differences of opinion and all, but... a turd? Total shit? Really? I'd truly like to know if you're speaking in hyperbole or if this is truly worse in your eyes than any summer blockbuster or C-grade horror flick out there? I'm trying to "start" something or anything; I'm genuinely curious.

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ReaperCreeper  -  March 12th, 2018, 2:07pm
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