Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Mischa Redfern I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

breakdownthatfilm-blogspot-com The character of Man-Thing is one of those oddball characters that are much more difficult to understand all around. I read the most recent series of "The Infernal Man-Thing" and even then, the story did not play out like most Marvel Comics would. Man-Thing isn't just a deformed green creature of the swamp. The images and thoughts that go on through his mind are sporadic and sometimes painful. Anyone that he meets, if they fear him, they physically burn at his touch. He's also apart of what is called the Nexus of Realities, an inter-dimensional area where space and time coincide with each other. This makes the character extremely complex; perhaps too complex. However, this isn't an excuse for the filmmakers to not exactly give a full-fledged effort. There are parts that help define this movie differently from other comic book adaptations, but its bad components still evenly match it.The story follows newly appointed Sheriff, Kyle Williams (Matthew Le Nevez) on an investigation to why a local town has numerous missing person cases. All of which, these cases take place around a dark swamp. It's in the dark swamp, that Man-Thing lives along with an oil drilling company. The oil company is owned by Frederic Schist (Jack Thompson), a man who firmly believes that he has every right to drill. Naturally to his frustration, he can't drill without having people protest, lead by Teri Richards (Rachael Taylor – the British girl from Transformers (2007)). These particular plot lines aren't original but not bad either. An they would work, if the characters were engaging enough, but it's not. That's a serious problem. The characters just don't make the story engaging. Most of this issue is due to lack of exposition in exchange for Brett Leonard directing the movie like a horror film. Even so with Man-Thing's name as the title, he's shockingly not the main focus, which is disappointing.There are scenes that talk about Ted Sallis (who later became Man-Thing in the comics), but here, its assumed every viewer would know this - which isn't a good idea. The Nexus of Reality is also mentioned, but its significance is wasted as well. These are points in the film that could've been used to help flesh out Man-Thing as a character. Instead, Man-Thing's direction is treated more like a horror villain, which is actually deviant from that of almost every other famous comic book character. This, although nothing new, at least gives the movie a different spin and its not bad. The problem again, goes back to Man- Thing not being development enough as a character. It's appreciated that the comic book names are still brought to light because honestly, with it only having a release on the Sci-fi channel, I wasn't even expecting the story to acknowledge that; but they did surprisingly.Subplots of course are no stranger to mediocre writing either. The issue of protecting the land that the oil tycoon is stationed on, is dropped quickly right from the moment it's introduced. The relationship between Kyle and Teri also felt too cliché and forced. Just having one thing in common with one another doesn't mean that they're a viable candidate to immediately start considering more than just someone you associate with. The other subplot is about this man named Rene LaRoque (Steve Bastoni) who lives in the swamp, but the audience never gets a chance to understand what his motivation is. All he does is walk around the swamp with hooded trenchcoat warning people to leave or they will die. Why doesn't he leave? Isn't he in danger? If not, how come? These questions aren't answered either, and it doesn't help make this movie scary to begin with.However, here's what helps the movie at least somewhat entertain past its poor writing. The editing was OK. It was quick at times during the transition scenes but it wasn't unwatchable. The production design to the swamp was competently well made and realistic looking for such a tiny budget. The cinematography was also decent looking because of how well it was able to make the small set of the swamp look extremely large. For horror violence, there are number of good kills and the practical effects of the gore look convincing as well. The Man-Thing creature itself looks awesome in his first form on screen and the special effects used to animate him look integrated evenly. The sound department is another good element. The swamp sounds of insects and creaking wood are nice. Accompanying that effectively is Roger Mason's score. With over an hour-long worth of score material, Mason has a main theme for Man-Thing and tunes for soft moments. These themes incorporate heavy strings and blaring horns that sound close to that of something a famous composer would make. It isn't a complex horror score, but it does work. Overall though, it's another average Marvel film that deserved more credible responsibility.It has impressive music, good-looking production value, appropriate horror and Man-Thing himself looks great, but that's it. The mediocre writing and dry performances fail to enforce its presence with a legitimate story.

Wuchak Marvel Comics' Man-Thing is a mindless, empathic swamp creature that lives in the Everglades. This 2005 film is loosely based on the story "Cry of the Native" from the 1973 comic Adventure Into Fear #16, which featured the Man-Thing, by writer Steve Gerber and Howland, Ohio's Val Mayerik (artist).WHAT WORKS: The plot's great: The Seminoles and environmentalists are upset over a developer taking over their precious swamp. A new police chief comes into town and has to deal with the situation, as well as investigate an increasing number of horrifying deaths in the swamp and reports of a "man-thing" creature living there.The swamp sets, cinematography, music, locations (Sydney, Australia -- of all places) and cast are all quite good. This is not a Grade-Z movie. As a matter of fact, it was originally intended for theatrical release.The film has a good mysterious feel to it, in particular the first 30 minutes and final 20 minutes. The vibe, to be expected, is very comic booky, but the material is respected and generally taken seriously, avoiding the rut of camp.What works best is the "Man-Thing" itself; imagine Val Mayerik's rendition of the creature with a bunch of creepy branches & roots sticking out of its back & head and you'd have a pretty good idea of what ol' Manny looks like in this film -- he's an 8-foot tall, hulking, and utterly horrifying piece of man-like swamp mass.WHAT DOESN'T WORK: Although the Man-Thing looks great, which is a cinematic triumph in and of itself, he doesn't appear fully until the last 20 minutes. This would be fine if the story were captivating, like say "Jaws," but it's not. Although the plot's great, the story itself barely holds your attention after the first half hour and is unnecessarily convoluted with pointless characters. The middle-hour is wasted on various characters hanging out in the swamp for one reason or another, half of them getting picked off by the creature. I'm sure they did this to show-off the cool swamp sets and lighting, etc., but they forgot the most important part -- an interesting story and characters. This makes no sense since Gerber's run on the comic contains a wealth of great material for compelling scripts.Unfortunately, the film deviates too far from Man-Thing's original concept. Some new ideas introduced are great -- like the way the creature looks and horrifically attacks people -- but where's Manny's empathic nature? Where's the "whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing's touch" element? And why does Manny kill people indistinguishably? For instance, the creature kills a noble native at one point and later threatens the two protagonists of the story. The Man-Thing never did this in the comics even though he was a mindless creature.Also, the Man-thing in the film is not Ted Salis (although Salis fits into the storyline another way); in the film the swamp monster is the spirit-guardian of the "Dark Water" area of the swamp, which is a nexus to another dimension, apparently birthed because of Salis' murder. At least the nexus aspect is faithful to the comic.COMPARISON: The first comic featuring the Man-thing beat out DC's Swamp Thing by two months in 1971, but Theodore Sturgeon's similar swamp creature "It" appeared in one of his short stories 31 years earlier! The first comic book bog beast, The Heap, appeared two years later in 1942, obviously inspired by Sturgeon's creature.Let's compare the films "Man-Thing" and the similar "Swamp-Thing" from 1982. To be expected, the creature from "Man-Thing" absolutely blows away the guy-in-a-rubber-suit in "Swamp-Thing." The sets, atmosphere and cinematography of "Man-Thing" are also better than "Swamp-Thing," not to mention the vibe's not as goofy. As for the story, I would say they're about equal.I suggest watching "Swamp-Thing" and "Man-Thing" back-to-back, like I just did. Then, if you really want to get wild & crazy, catch "Frogs" and "Pumpkinhead." You'll be swamped out after this.FINAL ANALYSIS: The midsection of "Man-Thing" is lethargic and meandering, filled with uninteresting or undeveloped characters, but the film's attributes noted above make it worth checking out if you're into creature-on-the-loose flicks, particularly swamp monster films. On that level it's a decent movie. The greatest part is the creature itself, which is a cinematic triumph, especially if you're a fan of the comic books. But these same fans will be disappointed because the film's a very loose interpretation. It's too bad because the potential for greatness was there.GRADE: C+

TombRaider09 Calling a movie just awful might seem uninspiring and unoriginal, but "Man-Thing" hardly deserves any originality from its reviews. The movie is, just awful, period. No horror or even jump scares are to be found in this atrociously banal comic book adaption about a vengeful swamp monster who kills people and stuff.Although the plot is really not the point in this film (though I sincerely doubt the film has a point at all in any department), a new sheriff (Le Nevez, who makes Hayden Christensen look like a character actor) arrives to a small Lousiana town to replace the missing sheriff, amidst an influx of missing persons cases. Peculiarly, they have all gone missing in the swamp, where an oil company has just recently started drilling oil on sacred Indian land. The rest of this predictable and dull plot consists of an odd assortment of people running aimlessly around the swamp getting themselves impaled by the Man-Thing that looks strangely a lot like big tree, only less terrifying and a lot clumsier (how you can move less gracefully than a non-moving object is itself an achievement). Why anyone would be terrified of this thing is perhaps the biggest - and only - mystery the story has to offer.While this unfunny, non-scary bore-fest may not be nothing more than a waste of your precious moments on Earth, the film did propel Alex O'Loughlin and Rachael Taylor, both Australians (where the movie was filmed) into acting careers in Hollywood, with O'Loughlin starring on CBS's "Moonlight" and "Hawaii 5-0" and Taylor landing roles on ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and "Charlie's Angels". Call it a silver lining if you wish.

Sandcooler This creature feature really is surprisingly stylish. Well, all they did was blow lots and lots of green fog over the set, but that's more effort than this kind of movie usually takes. The movie looks excellent, which I can applaud. There's also a mystery aspect woven in to keep away the boredom for some more minutes, and the outcome to that plot is also pretty good. That doesn't make the movie good however, just tolerable. It's still just doing the same thing every other creature feature does, complete with the prologue about a couple wandering of for no reason, having sex and getting killed. Sometimes I wonder how many times I've seen a scene like that in my life, but I prefer not to know. There's also the implausibly heartless villain tampering with nature, is anyone really supposed to be surprised when he gets killed? The weirdest thing though is the casting. I know some of this movie was filmed in Australia, but at least try to find actors who can hide their Aussie accent a little. I'm talking to you, standard love interest. And how can a girl that pretty be a native in a town like that anyway, where every other person looks like a "Deliverance"-reject? Oh well, still not a bad movie.