A rating of three stars makes it appear that I thought this movie sucked...well, it sucked, but for a bad movie, it was pretty good.
"Terror" is a weird mix. It has a Japanese director, but a mostly American cast. It has "Creature From The Black Lagoon" fish-men; it's got a Bond style underwater base; it's got a gleefully sneering Kevin Spacey lookalike (also channeling rent-a-center Blofeld); it's got Sonny Chiba (before his breakthrough as a martial arts star); it's got that weird Japanese preoccupation with body mutation; it's got definite S-and-M vibrations at times; it's got an attractive American actress who screams and whines seemingly every 10 seconds, but looks pretty good when she does it. Oh yes, and it's got a couple of American naval guys who overact something fierce...but they also look pretty good when they do it (they're handsome square- jawed hero types). And there's very repetitive but somehow hypnotic vibraphone and electronics- based soundtrack that actually works to reinforce the idea that most of this is taking place underwater.
And in spite of all this, "Terror" is really slow, static and boring for the first 2/3rds of the movie. Chiba has a lot of screen presence,but his character is mostly a helpless pawn of the forces that have captured him and his girlfriend (remember what I said aboutthe S-and-M feel of some parts of the movie?)
Things pick up a little towards the end when the American submarine finally attacks and things start blowing up...but things are still mostly flat and by-the-numbers, and the damage to your patience has been done. (I suppose some people would feel instead that their patience through the draggy, over-long early scenes has finally been rewarded).
So is this a good film? Ummm...no. But Peggy Neal looked good in a scuba outfit and Sonny Chiba showed some of the spark that would make him famous later and a lot of people obviously worked pretty hard (if without any inspiration) to make this at least a watchable film.
One thumb halfway up. Sort of.
"Terror" is a weird mix. It has a Japanese director, but a mostly American cast. It has "Creature From The Black Lagoon" fish-men; it's got a Bond style underwater base; it's got a gleefully sneering Kevin Spacey lookalike (also channeling rent-a-center Blofeld); it's got Sonny Chiba (before his breakthrough as a martial arts star); it's got that weird Japanese preoccupation with body mutation; it's got definite S-and-M vibrations at times; it's got an attractive American actress who screams and whines seemingly every 10 seconds, but looks pretty good when she does it. Oh yes, and it's got a couple of American naval guys who overact something fierce...but they also look pretty good when they do it (they're handsome square- jawed hero types). And there's very repetitive but somehow hypnotic vibraphone and electronics- based soundtrack that actually works to reinforce the idea that most of this is taking place underwater.
And in spite of all this, "Terror" is really slow, static and boring for the first 2/3rds of the movie. Chiba has a lot of screen presence,but his character is mostly a helpless pawn of the forces that have captured him and his girlfriend (remember what I said aboutthe S-and-M feel of some parts of the movie?)
Things pick up a little towards the end when the American submarine finally attacks and things start blowing up...but things are still mostly flat and by-the-numbers, and the damage to your patience has been done. (I suppose some people would feel instead that their patience through the draggy, over-long early scenes has finally been rewarded).
So is this a good film? Ummm...no. But Peggy Neal looked good in a scuba outfit and Sonny Chiba showed some of the spark that would make him famous later and a lot of people obviously worked pretty hard (if without any inspiration) to make this at least a watchable film.
One thumb halfway up. Sort of.