My Movie Journal is Better Than Yours

Notes History

Date Viewed	Venue	Note
01.17.18	Internet	I really want to like Guillermo del Toro movies. I love him as a person and share most if not all of his interests and respect the hell out of him as an artist, but I just can't bring myself to love his films. This, along with Pan's Labyrinth and Pacific Rim and Hellboy and most of his others, falls just short of greatness for me. I love the design and idea and all of that, but there's a lack of nuance or subtlety that irks me in a minor yet meaningful way. I liked it, but didn't love it. Really I think I can say that for every one of his movies but Crimson Peak (which I have very fond memories of... I'll have to check my notes to see if I gushed over it at the time) and maybe Cronos which I saw a really long time ago. Man that Crimson Peak was good. This was good too; there was just a few things that bugged me. Like how very very similar the creature looked to Abe Sapien. Like it could BE Abe Sapien. I get that creatures from black lagoons are kind of a specific look and there's only so many ways your can make a fish-dude look, but i still couldn't get it out of my head. Or how the diner soda jerk guy went from all-the-way nice to all-the-way jerk in like 5 seconds, or how everything has to be so on the nose... but these are relatively minor foibles compared to the strength of design and performances and direction and make-up at work here. I just wish I connected with it a little more... liked it, didn't love it.