What did you think of The Shape of Water (2017)?

I watched it and I it was technically good, but not sure if I would say that it was great. I am really surprised it won best picture. I haven't seen the other nominees accept for Get Out, and this one is better than that one, but I have to say, were the all the movies of last year really that bad to the point that The Shape of Water would win? Was there really not anything better at all?

I was just wondering, what was so great about this movie that it was the best movie of the year? I was excited to see it cause I really liked Pan's Labyrinth by the same director but I did not feel this movie was in the same league and surprised this one won.

But what do you think?

Like you said, it was technically good but otherwise I'd go as far as saying that I hated it. To me it looked like totally soulless and calculated bait for the Academy (which they apparently took and swallowed).

I adored The Shape of Water, I thought it was a magnificent told film. You mentioned the technical aspects, but I also loved just how tightly paced the film was, I really connected to the main character, I love how the premise is so outlandish, yet Del Toro found a natural way to solidify it into a narrative that feels familiar, yet transcendent, it's just a story told with so much care.

Get Out and Lady Bird would probably be my next two choices for best picture if Shape hadn't won.

I thought it was good, but I, Tonya was technically superior . The only issue I had was watching the tub-thumping scenes sitting next to my mother.

But I felt that the movie might have been too tightly paced to the point where we don't really see a lot of the relationship development between the main character and her love interest. We see a lot of really short scenes between them and then all of a sudden they are together with not enough build up perhaps I felt.

I mean maybe if the two main characters were both human, the screen time development would have been enough, but in this case, the relationship between the two is so peculiar that it needed more time to develop I felt, unless I am wrong?

That's a good point, however I still thought that the romance was perfectly feasible even if their progression was short-lived because:

a) The character development around Eliza makes it perfectly clear that she's an extremely lonesome woman, we see it throughout the entire film, she longs to have a deep emotional connection to someone (in this case something) she finds this creature to fit the mold because he doesn't see her as something lesser (a cleaning woman, a mute, a woman of low-income) but basically as her savior. She's become so used to being belittled that she has become a hopeless romantic.

b) the creature has a terrible experience with humans and he sees them as monsters who disturb peace and want to dominate everything, when Eliza shows compassion and infatuation, she immediately stands out.

I agree that the film doesn't really take it's time to develop their connection once they're together, but I think it's still a fantastic payoff because it's abundantly clear that these two characters complete each other, and that's much harder romance to sell.

I think that one shouldn't necessarily consider the Academy's vote for Best Picture to automatically indicate the best film of a given year (when you think about it, how often do they ever really line up?) nor that the pick means that it was a landslide victory for the winner. Consider that we the general public really don't know how the Academy's actual voting system works - whether there's preferential voting or one pick per category or whatever system the Academy uses, we don't know. As a result, I do wonder what the voting results look like in each case and how many times the winner is an extremely close call instead of a landslide. Think of it this way - imagine that exactly 20% of the Academy voted for Shape while the other 80% was divided into eight shares of 10% each among the other nominees. In this case, Shape technically wins because it has more votes than the others even though the vast majority of voters did not actually pick it. I'd say this is pretty true of this year's Best Picture nominees in that they all had decent enough chances of winning that it probably split the vote to the point where Shape was able to pull off a surprise win. All the movies may be equally good, but in the end there's still got to be only one winner. So that's my hypothesis for why a seemingly "okay" film like Shape* won out over more obvious favourites like Three Billboards or Lady Bird or whatever.

*as for what I thought of the film itself, I quite liked it myself, though I wouldn't necessarily consider it my favourite of the nine nominees - at present, I might well put Phantom Thread and Get Out ahead of it.

I do find it funny that the sci-fi/horror/fantasy/romance about a woman falling in love with the Creature from the Black Lagoon can be considered "totally soulless and calculated bait for the Academy" while films like Darkest Hour and The Post are sitting right there.

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Thought it was a very good film! We will see exactly how much I love it on my 2nd watch.

I think @pahaK has summed it up perfectly. It suited the current political climate.
Still, it was a well made film.

Of the nominees I wanted CMBYN to take a lot of honours, especially the best lead actor.

Otherwise for me Blade Runner 2049 was the best movie by a bloody distance.

Outside of Michael Shannon's performance, I thought it was extremely mediocre.

It's The Oscars. The best film of the year rarely even gets nominated let alone wins.

Exactly what I think!

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We know this, but it gets tiring to hear this as well. Been plenty of times a great film won the prize.

I liked it. Thought it deserved the Best Picture award despite it not being my favourite of the year. That would be Get Out.

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Suspect's Reviews

Not a fan. I think the twee and the horror elements clashed pretty badly, and more to the point I thought the writing and character development were really shockingly poor. Shannon's character is almost sub-caricature.

Del Toro is a brilliant filmmaker, and there are few people I'd rather have helping me construct a world from scratch. He seems like he could build a compelling world full of rich lore basically off the top of his head. But even in his best films, there's a significant gulf between that broader creative genius and their actual realization. I think that disconnect is bigger than ever in The Shape of Water.

I was just answering the question posed.

It's become very fashionable to diss the Best Picture Oscar winner on this site, no matter the year or the film, but I loved The Shape of Water, though I have to admit I thought Three Billboards was going to win, I was very pleased with the win. Great movie, I rated it if memory serves.

I've never followed awards. Ever. Matter of fact, the voting poll this site provided at the time was probably the only time I took notice.

I was very disappointed in this movie. Now I absolutely adored Pan's Labyrinth, but The Shape of Water was simply too jarring for me. The sets were gorgeous, but I had a very difficult time with the simplicity of characters and sexuality presented. The contrast just made no sense to me for it to be there, in this story. I don't necessarily mean the love between the two characters, but the opening masturbation sequence in the tub and the reoccurring sexuality to follow. That alienated me very much and pretty much repulsed me from enjoying the story as, in that moment, I could not tell if it was a choice for shocking contrast for the sake of shock alone, or some type of character awareness for the audience. I felt that either way, it could have been presented later once we were allowed some time to develop a base level of understanding of this character's loneliness and sexual drive. For all of the child-like wonder and fantasy Del Toro's movies always have, this threw me right out.

That, followed by the issues others have already posted just left me in frustrated disappointment with this movie.

2.25/5 probably. I'd watch it again to confirm if not already so put off by it.

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Loved it, easily my favorite movie of 2017.

I loved it! The story has really touched me