Starring: Adrienne Barbau, Ray Wise, and Dick Durock as Swamp Thing.
Swamp Thing existed before the great Alan Moore started writing for him, but it was Moore's run on the series that made the character so fascinating. So when the horror "great" Wes Craven was announced to direct a Swamp Thing movie, all the early fanboys were excited. Granted, there are some very, very good shots of cinematography abound in the swamp and the sunken church, the rest of the film looks awful.
The best parts of the film are the early moments between Doctor Alec Holland and Doctor Alice Cable. Then the bad guys show up. Once the great Ray Wise is dispatched of, the film goes downhill. If they kept him on for the close up speaches of Swamp Thing, it would be a tad bit better. I, of course mean no disrespect to the great Dick Durock that portrayed the Swamp Thing in both films as well as the pretty darned good tv series.
Yeah, so Dr. Alec Holland is working on cutting edge research. Dr. Arcane is evil and trying to steal Dr. Holland's work. Dr. Arcane kills of Holland, or so he thinks, and attempts to steal his research. Dr. Holland, however, has been turned into a mighty creature of the swamp, do to his own research. Good versus evil. The best, non-action parts are the young kid named Jude that runs a gas station. He's a bit humerous.
"kickin' don't do nothin', you gotta punch it".
If I were fifteen and a fan of the comic when this came out, I'd be pissed. Even today, I'm a fan of bad movies, and this is way up there. I'm not even sure if this is bad in a good way. It's just pretty bad. Oh, and the rubber suit....man, it's as bad as that unreleased Captain America movie.
I keep saying, "hey latex!".
Then we come to "Return of Swamp Thing"
Directed by Jim Wynorski.
Starring: Dick Durock as Swamp Thing, Heather Locklear
Sevin-ish years later, the thing from the swamp returns. This time there is an abundance of humor and better effects. There's even a whole new Swamp Thing costume which is much more to the style of the comic book. The story is also truer to the Alan Moore stories, not a perfect representation, but closer. Straight off the bat we get giant leach creatures(homage to Roger Corman's "Giant Leaches"??). Straight away, Swamp Thing kicks ass and has a sense of humor.
We then meet Heather's character, an L.A. botonist who quickly mentions, "rejects in star trek costumes", and "that guy on tv, T.J. whats his name", both referances to her "T.J. Hooker", co-star Shatner. I also like the line "you can stroke a plant and it doesn't get the wrong idea".
The sequal starts off on the right foot with a creature attack on some anti-bootlegging cops in the swamps. We then meet Ms. Locklear's character as the daughter of Dr. Arcane's late wife, making her his daughter-in-law, she decides that she needs to confront him to set things straight. Comic relief? Sure, there's a chubby white kid and his black friend trying to look at porn while their parents are away. "man it's monster central around here tonight." Yup, it's funnier when they say it.
This is what Swamp Thing should look like, and when they get around to making the fancy pants 3-D movie, he should look like this. Maybe a little drippier, though.
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