Monster of the Day #295

Flangepart

Sea Grabboid!
With claws!

The Rev.

Wow! What the hell is this thing? I love it!

John Campbell

Oh I should know the name of this!!

Isn’t it the one where the poster art showed the deep diving suit with the bottom half ripped off with innards a dangling?

TongoRad

Deep Star Six ? Looks like it just may be- I’ve got this on videotape and just may have to get it out again. It definitely has its moments. I do seem to recall a problem with the suspense element of it, though: all of the attacks are pretty well telegraphed (at least, that’s how I remember it. It’s been a while.)

Rock Baker

Is it Deep Star Six or Leviathon? I remember the video box for one of them showing a much more dinosaur like menace. I’m not sure enough to pin it down, but I think this one might be Leviathon. (You’d think if there’d be any one word I’d be sure how to spell…..)

TongoRad

The escape pod pictured does seem to be from Deep Star Six, though, and maybe I’m reading too much into it, but those identification letters could stand for Deep Star ( followed by something-or-other Vehicle)-1. And an escape hatch just like that did figure into the end of the movie, so I’m sticking with that one ( even though I never would have gotten it without some prompting.)

The Rev.

Oh, this is the DS6 beastie? I didn’t remember it. To be fair, I’ve seen that movie exactly once, in high school. I did remember loving the monster, if nothing else.

I’m pretty sure it’s not the Leviathan critter, which was more amorphous and ill-defined. I do remember DS6‘s monster being very crustacean, like this.

Rock Baker

Okay, that makes sense. I’m not sure if I saw both films or not, but I think I did, right around the same time, several years ago. I caught one of them on TNT. I should really see both again and refresh my memory, but I recall not being overly satisfied with either (I was young, though, and hadn’t yet developed a taste for 80s fare).

Ken Begg

I know I really loathed Leviathan when I saw it in the theater. DeepStar Six was more hit and miss.

The Rev.

I seem to recall that I liked Leviathan the better of the two. It’s been so long, though, and so much has changed. I should watch these two again, and see what I think nowadays.

David Fullam

Wish we had seen more of the monster. But we had Nancy Everhard. Her last name is how she makes me feel! Cha ching!

TongoRad

So we watched it last night. Going into it I just wanted a good ride and some nifty monster action, and in that regard it delivered. Not a bad way to spend a lazy Friday night.

The strange thing about this movie is that the third act is really problematic plot-wise, but that’s also where you get to see all of the monster attacks. I guess it all evens out that way, but if they had just maintained the same control over the script that they had in the first two acts this would’ve been a genuinely good movie.

My main beef is that everything that happens during that portion of the movie is generated by incredibly stupid/selfish/incompetent acts commited by an incredibly stupid/selfish/incompetent character, and not as a natural result of the presence of the monster. When you’re left with the feeling that everything would’ve worked out fine if it hadn’t been for dumbass over there, the actual menacing quality of the monster itself is greatly diminished.

Still, it is a way cool monster and you do get to see quite a bit of it at the end there.

Flangepart

> My main beef is that everything that happens during that portion of the movie is generated by incredibly stupid/selfish/incompetent acts commited by an incredibly stupid/selfish/incompetent character, and not as a natural result of the presence of the monster. When you’re left with the feeling that everything would’ve worked out fine if it hadn’t been for dumbass over there, the actual menacing quality of the monster itself is greatly diminished. <

Consider how many films would shorten up, if the main characters didn't muck it all up with human failings.
That said, I'd like to see a movie re-written so all the dumb a$$ choices made by the characters were corrected.
Kinda like a Bomb film where Blofeld has read the Eviloverlords list.
Hummm…on that note, what film would you like to see re-written that way?

Ken Begg

Well, that comes down to execution. I’ll be the first to call shenanigans when appropriate; everyone’s favorite moment in Deep Blue Sea (admittedly, not a lot of contest there) is when SPOILER Samuel L. Jackson gets eaten. And I laughed, too. However, in retrospect I can’t get past the point that the circumstances of his death required him to act INAPPROPRIATELY stupid.

On the other hand, people will make mistakes in a panic situation, and if you handle that correctly, it works. I loved the moment in The Descent where one of the women has a freak out moment, and ends up breaking her ankle because of it. A bad but arguably manageable situation suddenly becomes ten times worse because that one moment of panic resulted in a tipping point that resulted in a malign cascade effect. That’s pretty realistic, I thought.

In in the end, it helps to not make ALL your characters be dumbasses.

Rock Baker

So is that what people don’t like about Deep Blue Sea? I admit its been some time since I last saw it, mostly because my brother’s copy has mysteriously vanished, but I remember liking the film before I started hearing all the put-downs.

TongoRad

Yeah- making mistakes, panicing, overconfidence in one’s abilities, heck, even evil duplicitousness- those human failings are what I was getting at when I was getting at when I was thinking about events that happen as a result of being faced with a monster or catastrophic situation. All pretty cool by me, especially if they are done within one’s character. But, without getting too spoilerific about Deep Star Six, what happens there is such a whopper of a doozy that you’re just left with a big “c’mon now, couldn’t you think of anything else?”. I’ll also grant that maybe the idea was workable but they didn’t execute it very well.

That chain of events did lead to some exciting scenes, though, so I’ll give ’em credit for that much. (jeez- I feel like such a tease. I could go into more detail if folks here don’t mind being spoiled.)

The Rev.

For me, Deep Blue Sea‘s main sin was not that it was massively stupid on many fronts, but seemed to think the audience was stupid as well. I admit, I haven’t watched it since that one time in college, but I recall feeling that the guy making the movie thought I was a dolt and would happily snaffle up whatever he threw at me and ask for more. The design of the research station, the use of makos, the impossible things the sharks do, the “science” on display, the blatant Death Battle Exemption for the comic relief…just on and on. It was similar to my reaction to Saw, except it came much sooner in the proceedings during DBS (about 15-20 minutes in) than Saw (the end).

Rock Baker

I mostly remember killer sharks swimming around a flooding complex and a more likable than usuaul Token Black Comic Relief Guy Played By A Rapper I Never Heard Of Trying To Break Into The Movies. I remember Jackson’s death scene being sort of unexpected (although I’m sure I’d see it coming from a mile away if I saw it again), and that the sharks were supposed to be intelligent and could swim backwards (I recall the scene where the shark reacts to the sight of a spear-gun). That’s about it. I know I enjoyed it, and would like very much to see it again. Who knows. When I do see Deep Blue Sea again, I may think it stinks(Then again, I liked Star Trek 5, I always felt IV was the stinker of that series. I’ve never been one to be pressured by popular opinion).

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