The Shape of Water

Set in the 60s, a mute girl falls in love with an amphibious creature that bites off her cat’s head.

I was expecting to be blown away by this movie given the fact that it had won 4 oscars in 2017, two of which being best directing by GDT and best picture. However, barely a quarter into the movie, I had the sense that this movie was going to an utter disappointment. Every beat of the story was cliché and if anything, so blatantly stupid that it pissed me off. In some very few occasions, a movie starts off poorly but the movie takes off or the movie has such a dramatic and effective twist that it blows you away. Neither happened and all that can be appreciated about the film is that it was not longer than 2 hours. Granted, the vibe of the 1960s is there with the costume and set design. Furthermore, the CGI of the amphibious character is actually decent. But that’s as much credit as I can give the movie.

I believe that a truly mesmerising an antagonist is one that the audience might actually be able to get behind and empathise with. In this movie, the villain is simply there for the audience to hate and for the movie’s character’s to beat him to shit in a scene that might be ‘empowering’ for the audience. It just comes off as lazy because we see this trope all too often. But to be fair, they did have representation for a mute person which is unique. But she also has sex with a fish.

To conclude, I had too high of expectations for this film. While it was well done from a technical perspective, beyond that it was very underwhelming for me.

2/10