Smoreni Zmaj One more in the line of Marvel comics adaptations, but this time, instead of superhero action comedy, we got horror "thriller". New sheriff comes to the town on the edge of the swamp, where people disappear in an unusually large number. Bodies are disfigured in a way that the alligator attack can not explain. Local Indians know something, and it's on the sheriff and the young teacher to find out what, while Man-Thing in depths of swamp waits for new victim. Characters are everyday ordinary, story is realistic as much as it is possible for a monster movie, directing is solid and swamp is eerily beautiful. For its budget movie is very well done, special effects are credible and acting is all right. There is not much action, characterization is satisfactory and the horror scenes are well measured, without exaggeration typical for this type of movie. My main objection is insufficient tension in the atmosphere, and what I liked the most is that monster is not a real villain, but represents an ecosystem that is defending itself from human destructiveness. True villain is revealed in in the second half of the film, but unfortunately it is obvious from the very beginning. Although technically this movie is thriller, because of the predictability and lack of tension, I put quotes on the word.6,5/10P.S. At the very beginning of the movie, there's a scene, in which a monster attacks a couple in the middle of sex, that looks as if it turned out from a horror of the eighties, and it's a real treat for gore B movies fans.

Nigel P Man-Thing was a monstrous swamp-dwelling creature who starred in a handful of Marvel Comics' series beginning in 1971. During this time, the company had success with classic monsters Dracula, Werewolf and Frankenstein's Monster. These characters and others had their own publications in America, which were edited into episodes to form the UK's 'Dracula Lives', which was one of the main reasons for my burgeoning interest in horror. Original Marvel characters were also developed, like Ghost-Rider and Morbius, but none had the staying power of Man-Thing.This curious film was released in 2005 as a straight-to-television venture, but also enjoyed limited theatrical release. Set in the swamps of Louisiana, but filmed in Australia, it bears little resemblance to the mighty comic strip, which under main writer Steve Gerber, showed Man-Thing had an empathic nature.The central creature isn't seen until right at the end of the film. Diminishing budget was probably the cause for this, but when he is seen, he is quite impressive. There are characters in the film called Mike Ploog and Val Mayarik. In 'real life', these men provided much of the art for the original strips. Steve Gerber is also named as a character.Apart from Australian actors assuming American accents with varying success, this is quite a good looking film. Certainly the swamp-lands and scenes of encroaching industria are shot and lit in a very striking fashion. Only the script serves to let things down a little. There is an occasional bout of gore to spice things up, but little in the way of character development, so it isn't easy to care about them, despite the best intentions of the actors. The whole story serves as a lead-up to meeting the Man-Thing itself, and when he is revealed, things liven up considerably.

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.

elshikh4 A new horror about a lake monster, done with no less than a monster movie-making ! The lead, (Matthew Le Nevez), is bad. "Acting" is something he has never heard of. "Character" is something the scriptwriter has never heard of either ! You'll never know : was the lead having problems? Was he smart? Was he angry? What I know now for sure is that the scriptwriter has problems, one of them is that he's stupid, and that made me angry !The girl ? Grrrrrr ! I bet they wanted to insert any girl anyway into the movie's events, while forgetting giving her a character too. Her being here is absurd comedy. She falls in love with the lead, kissing him now and then, then and now, for no obvious reason but providing the movie with kissing. She's with him at the last scene, so the poster may have her with him…wet !The rest of the movie is at rest as creative or even workable. In the start there is a scene that copies the first scene of (Jaws). After that there is a "monster in the lake", how many movies had that before? Then, a slasher movie where everybody is killed, misshapen and torn apart, a man who wanted to have the land for himself, a Red Indian voodoo, and snore, snore, snorrrrr.. sorry, that was me in front of this ! In brief : What's new ? And in terms of making that old movie, or movies, what's not bad?The editing is primarily good, trying to make a surprising dark character for the movie, however loses every power it has during the lost and incredibly boring second act, in which nothing happens but some guys go into the lake, talk to each others, then get murdered brutally (At one moment I hoped that the creature may eat the lead, that should have made me happy, and changed the mood a bit !). The cinematography doesn't get out a chronic case of green for the lake scenes and yellow for the rest, so with the movie's unoriginality and emptiness I felt discontent; maybe that's a point for the sake of the movie's atmosphere ! And the direction has its moments, but what a scary vacuum it plays in for all the time, and it's shameful enough working with a script like that ! It pulls off one matter though, which is hiding the creature's features for almost all the time. It's a smart trick yes, based on the good horror works to inflame the expectation and generate some fear, but the thing is when we got to see it at the end, it looked so primitive and poor to feel frustration and regret. Here's a movie that doesn't want to complete anything good at all !"Let him dig, dig, and dig.. his grave" is a line I liked. Though, between you and me, was anything in this movie better than it ? Well, this movie digs its grave by its own hands ! (Man Thing) is a movie thing. It's supposed to be a B pastime product, however ended up as the movie shown on video in (The Ring); just series of hardly related dark images that do nothing but curse you. Heck, I should have been warned when the movie's title, at the movie's start, looked like a green vomit !P.S : How come that (Stan Lee)'s name is on this ? The man is a master of beautiful crap. Why he went on to produce pure crap this round ?!