Creature (1998)

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Tried three times to watch this on TV, but had to give up. It appears to have been shot with defective cameras, as all scenes are unbelievably DARK. I've rated this 1 but it deserves a ZERO. WHY do producers let a film go out so extremely crippled? Could the producers not afford decent lighting? Whatever the reason, this abortion should never be put on TV again.

What is a mildly interesting and decent monster film is made less so by a weird sort of plagiarism, plus the nonsensical political dogma that seeps into the very-long adaptation.The first half of this middling excursion into undersea terror is pretty much a repeat of Jaws, and of course perfectly legit as Benchley wrote that in the first place and likely won't sue himself for plagiarism. The second part is awfully similar to the Creature from the Black Lagoon, mostly the 3rd film of the series, The Creature Walks Among Us, where he's transformed into an amphibious being by single-minded scientists. But the differences are enough that Universal probably couldn't make a strong case to sue, yet it's apparent to those who know the Black Lagoon series. Don't know if it was Benchley or scripter Rockne O'Bannon who's responsible for this. Interestingly, another O'Bannon did something similar turning It! The Terror From Beyond Space into Alien, which spawned a lawsuit that was successful.So back to Creature...the other problem is the rather outdated political sensibilities of a big government plot to create a monstrous biological weapon for use during Vietnam War, and subsequent typical cover-up by Gung Ho GIs who only live to kill. These are typical of Pen Densham and his gang who see Vietnam as US terrorizing innocents with all sorts of conspiracies, rather than US blundering into a war it found hard to fight, then made stupid decisions, and did not have the desire to win. Truth is Vietnam showed more about government incompetence than about government conspiracies.Their viewpoint is that the ecologically-minded scientist would always be at odds with the hard-boiled military crowd, and this must be the case in order to present dramatic conflict and the protagonist/antagonist situation, as typically the monsters or creations in their view are sympathetic, at least in the realm of pathos. As an example, when the scientist states he must kill the creature, it's taken as a matter of fact and necessity, with no dismay towards the scientist. But not so later when the Admiral states pretty much the same thing, and he's shown as callous and hard-core, and presented in a despicable light as is his crew.If you haven't seen it, you can figure out already that the worst enemy here, the military, gets its just rewards from the creature, yet of course, the creature is not as worthy of life as the environmental scientist, so must be second to go. I almost forgot, the epitome of capitalism presented here as a money-grubbing salvage operator has to meet an untimely demise also.But if you can get past all of this, then you might enjoy this on the level of a B-movie monster film, with the always superbly outstanding work of the monster-makers of Stan Winston Studios. Way better than CGI.

I don't want to beat a dead squid, but Peter Benchley needs to get over his obsession with scary creatures in dark water. Put the pen down and go for a swim!The writers covered it all - opening scene of a mysterious brutal death beneath the surface that outrages the locals, an under-appreciated 'expert' in marine biology (complete with sharkbait son), the skeptical townsfolk, the local police chief that doesn't want to ruin the reputation of his beaches, lots of fog at random moments of suspense, etc...The special effects are, well, not especially effective and the acting is annoying at best. If you want to enjoy this trainwreck, play the 'Chase' drinking game (Craig T. Nelson's character is Chase) and take a swig every time someone yells it out. You'll be feeling good by the second commercial break!

Remember those skits on Saturday Night Live in the 70's that had Chevy Chase as a walking shark that went door to door eating people? Well, any suspense this film might have been able to generate (note the use of the word "might") is obliterated once the titular creature is revealed to be...that very same walking shark. Except that this time it doesn't talk and the costume is slightly better (but only by the tiniest of increments). Am I the only one who noticed that Peter Benchley has only written one good book and then he just kept writing it over and over again, changing the attacking creatures just enough to warrant another book? "The Beast", "The Creature", they're all essentially "Jaws" retreads, only not nearly as good. Just ridiculous. Good for a laugh, though. Too bad "Mystery Science Theater" went off the air. They could have a blast with this.