Movies: The Shape Of Water

(Drivebycuriosity) - There is a cult around Guillermo del Toro. The Mexican movie director is celebrated as a magician in the horror & fantasy movie genre, called "the master movie monsters". But I think del Toro is overrated. His newest film, "The Shape of Water", confirms me in my opinion (imdb). Here a woman, who works as a cleaner in a classified government facility, starts a romance with a human shaped amphibian creature, which is captured there (this is a spoiler free blog. You can find a synopsis here wikipedia ).

Del Toro tried too many things, making a funny, romantic & erotic horror comedy musical. It seems he tried to copy the bizarre humor of Wes Anderson ("The Grand Budapest Hotel", "Moonrise Kingdom"), but he failed. De Toro doesn`t play in the same league. He put way too much sugar on his plot and ruined it. The film wants to cater the PC crowd by overstuffing the plot with too much empathy.  One political correct reviewer on IMdB wrote: De Toro "allows the audience to discover this intimate and fascinating world of "broken" people searching for a moment of meaning". Another pompous reviewer celebrates the "central interspecies love story".

"The Shape of Water" is kitschy, inconsistent and the special effects are pedestrian. The leading amphibian figure, played by an actor covered with a ridiculous mask, looked pathetic & ridiculous, like a character in Punch-and-Judy show for little children. In one moment it was helpless and got almost terminal sick, in another moment it got god-like features.

2 actors somewhat comforted: I had fun to watch the hilarious Sally Hawkins and Michael Shannon was tougher than ever. But anyway, watching "The Shape of Water" is a waste of time.