Quote:
Originally Posted by Sculpt
I read your review before and after the section labeled "spoilers", because I hadn't seen it yet. 
OK, so big creature was C. Well, in this movie, whatever it was, it didn't really do or say anything that a giant fish/squid/animal would do. I didn't get the smaller creatures were worshiping C, I just read that they were. I am no expert on C, or L***c***t for that matter. The brief appearance of C at the end did nothing for me. In a way, that only makes it more of a fan film of references. The only way I made it through the film, with one jump ahead, is the mild humor of T.J. Miller. That, and general curiosity of the end, which I didn't dig either. But again, I'm glad you liked it. RT 60% fresh audience score isn't too bad.
Hmm... I don't know... one might say a 'remake' using the same title (as the original film) is being honest about the source material. And the audience knows ahead of time they are going to get something close to the original, or hopefully (to me) a re-imagining that is sufficiently original, but therefore that would be considered a pleasant surprise. I've seen the majority of critics both bash and praise some remake film titles, usually bash.
Whereas a film that presents itself as an original film has more responsibility to be original. There may be 'nothing new under the sun', but if you're doing a genre film like Underwater -- let's say a claustrophobic sci-fi horror -- if you piece together sections from other claustrophobic sci-fi horror films, the likelihood is it's going to seem hack. It struck me as very hack.
Only one film comes to mind that was a crosshatch of other sci-fi TV eps and films, that was well-received at HDC, and a lot of people I know, was Event Horizon (EH) (but the film still irked me). Coincidentally, EH was trashed by critics (RT Critic 28%) and has the same audience score as Underwater (60%). I thought EH was much better than Underwater (though I'm still not a fan of EH) because I thought the combination of story elements had a 'sort of originality', it was fairly unpredictable, had some creative creatures, etc. I don't think I'd say any of those things about Underwater. |
I guess I thought a really big creature on the ocean floor with those iconic traits would be kind of obvious. That reveal shot with the flare could have been a bit better if it wasn't so dark. But still, if you are a small human on the ocean floor and see that, I would probably lose my mind. But underwater statues freak me out.
With those big movies, I'm pretty much talking movies like the recent Star Wars and Star Trek. A few others too but I can't remember them as they were so bad. Movies that basically remake or use the plot structure of those original movies. It's the sort of thing that I find lazy coming from movies with massive budgets.
When I see a movie like Underwater, I do see a movie that was made by a fan. Sure since the referenced movies are fairly recent it's obvious in some ways. Perhaps older people who saw the original Star Wars picked up on the references. But I just see a difference between the fan director movie and the big studio movie that shouldn't be a remake or same plot point story. The whole point of the alternate time line Star Trek was to make new stories. Yet they made three revenge movies. One of which was a bad remake of the best Star Trek movie. And they had the nerve to attempt to try to sell it as something else.
I just find movies like Underwater and Doomsday far more honest and fun. Both are small movies that few liked. Yet were made by fans of many popular movies.
I'm mixed on Event Horizon. I believe we talked about it here. I know I was talking about it on the HorrorDVDs forum. I never saw Hellraiser before Event Horizon. I thought Event Horizon was kind of ok. I didn't like the ending. The scenes with Laurence Fishburne & Sam Neill are the best parts of the movie. I was going to watch it one more time to see if I would own it. Probably around the time I play the Dead Space trilogy since that was influenced by the movie. I pick Underwater over Event Horizon even though both could be a lot better.