Hey, this is Amanda. I'm going to be guest blogging for a week while my parents are off celebrating their anniversary. The first movie of the week is The Island of Dr. Moreau. Now I hadn't actually seen this film before so this'll be interesting. I guess I'll start with a review of sorts.
I enjoyed the film quite a bit. I like Michael York and I love supernatural/fantasy/sci-fi films. I was just at comic-Con and I went to the Supernatural panel. One fan asked if the panel was surprised that the audience was largely female. One of the producers, who is taking over as the show runner, and is female answered that she has always been a fan of the horror,supernatural,fantasy,sci-fi genres. She said her female friends have also always been fans of the genres. I screamed in agreement because I always feel like their advertising these things to the wrong groups. I love creepy weird stuff which is why I thought The Island of Dr. Moreau was a great film to start off this week. I liked that it was kind of campy. I also like that it didn't rely on a bunch of special effects. It took a fairly simple concept and ran with it. The only real special effects are make-up and explosions. The creep factor is all in the idea that something very wrong is going on on the island and the main character is trapped there. I love films like that. Don't get me wrong, I also really enjoy big special effects but sometimes it's nice to watch something that relies solely on story. However, I also have to wonder how well the film did without the assistance of those special effects. It came out in 1977, the same year as Star Wars, and that must have been some competition. Nowadays it seems that story is sacrificed in order to deliver newer and bigger special effects.
Now, I'm not saying the story was great in the Island of Dr. Moreau but it worked well enough. Plus, Michael York and Burt Lancaster are great. Also, the poster is pretty cool. I love the morphing silhouette of human to animal.
I wish I had some anecdote to share about seeing the film with somebody or some funny thing that happened. I enjoyed the film. I didn't think it was the best movie ever but it was entertaining. I promise that with the following films for this week I will try to be more detailed. I do have a couple favorites coming up. Until then, here's the trailer.
Thanks Amanda. 1977 was a "lost" movie year for me (I was in Scotland and the only movie I saw was about ABBA??). JY remembers really liking this version of the The Island of Dr Moreau (there was one about 10 years ago that was AWFUL) so we've put it on the Blockbuster list.
ReplyDelete