Man-Thing

2005 "The nature of fear"
4.1| 1h37m| R| en| More Info
Released: 21 April 2005 Released
Producted By: Lions Gate Films
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

Agents of an oil tycoon vanish while exploring a swamp marked for drilling. The local sheriff investigates and faces a Seminole legend come to life: Man-Thing, a shambling swamp-monster whose touch burns those who feel fear.

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Reviews

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks
Portia Hilton Blistering performances.
Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.
Caryl It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.
dashizer7 I went into this movie knowing it was probably low budget (and it seemed to be), made for TV, and all sorts of things, but something inside me thought there was more to this. I was very wrong and at some point without even knowing who the actors are, anything really about the film besides the "monster" it is named after and appears in the film that this was Australian. Why am I mentioning this being Australian? Because the main female protagonist has an accent an accent that is supposed to be a Southern style bayou like accent, but you hear these glimpses of her real accent her Australian accent and this goes for many of the Australian characters.I find it also tropish, or in a way offensive that every movie dealing with nature and spirits seem to end up with Native Americans. That's not the only offensive thing there are the garish dead bodies which are obviously props, or a guy with make up. ***Spoiler*** One of the dead guys the racist security guard can be seen breathing in the scene where the sheriff kneels down to examine him at the behest of the coroner.I wouldn't say the acting was all bad, and I think the actors did their best but the guy who wrote this sucked, the director was terrible, whoever was in charge of cinematography needs to have been fired. It's an interesting watch just don't expect anything from this besides a cool looking creature.
Wuchak Marvel Comics' Man-Thing is a mindless, empathic swamp creature that lives in the Everglades. This 2005 film is loosely based on the story "Cry of the Native" from the 1973 comic Adventure Into Fear #16, which featured the Man-Thing, by writer Steve Gerber and Howland, Ohio's Val Mayerik (artist).WHAT WORKS: The plot's great: The Seminoles and environmentalists are upset over a developer taking over their precious swamp. A new police chief comes into town and has to deal with the situation, as well as investigate an increasing number of horrifying deaths in the swamp and reports of a "man-thing" creature living there.The swamp sets, cinematography, music, locations (Sydney, Australia -- of all places) and cast are all quite good. This is not a Grade-Z movie. As a matter of fact, it was originally intended for theatrical release.The film has a good mysterious feel to it, in particular the first 30 minutes and final 20 minutes. The vibe, to be expected, is very comic booky, but the material is respected and generally taken seriously, avoiding the rut of camp.What works best is the "Man-Thing" itself; imagine Val Mayerik's rendition of the creature with a bunch of creepy branches & roots sticking out of its back & head and you'd have a pretty good idea of what ol' Manny looks like in this film -- he's an 8-foot tall, hulking, and utterly horrifying piece of man-like swamp mass.WHAT DOESN'T WORK: Although the Man-Thing looks great, which is a cinematic triumph in and of itself, he doesn't appear fully until the last 20 minutes. This would be fine if the story were captivating, like say "Jaws," but it's not. Although the plot's great, the story itself barely holds your attention after the first half hour and is unnecessarily convoluted with pointless characters. The middle-hour is wasted on various characters hanging out in the swamp for one reason or another, half of them getting picked off by the creature. I'm sure they did this to show-off the cool swamp sets and lighting, etc., but they forgot the most important part -- an interesting story and characters. This makes no sense since Gerber's run on the comic contains a wealth of great material for compelling scripts.Unfortunately, the film deviates too far from Man-Thing's original concept. Some new ideas introduced are great -- like the way the creature looks and horrifically attacks people -- but where's Manny's empathic nature? Where's the "whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing's touch" element? And why does Manny kill people indistinguishably? For instance, the creature kills a noble native at one point and later threatens the two protagonists of the story. The Man-Thing never did this in the comics even though he was a mindless creature.Also, the Man-thing in the film is not Ted Salis (although Salis fits into the storyline another way); in the film the swamp monster is the spirit-guardian of the "Dark Water" area of the swamp, which is a nexus to another dimension, apparently birthed because of Salis' murder. At least the nexus aspect is faithful to the comic.COMPARISON: The first comic featuring the Man-thing beat out DC's Swamp Thing by two months in 1971, but Theodore Sturgeon's similar swamp creature "It" appeared in one of his short stories 31 years earlier! The first comic book bog beast, The Heap, appeared two years later in 1942, obviously inspired by Sturgeon's creature.Let's compare the films "Man-Thing" and the similar "Swamp-Thing" from 1982. To be expected, the creature from "Man-Thing" absolutely blows away the guy-in-a-rubber-suit in "Swamp-Thing." The sets, atmosphere and cinematography of "Man-Thing" are also better than "Swamp-Thing," not to mention the vibe's not as goofy. As for the story, I would say they're about equal.I suggest watching "Swamp-Thing" and "Man-Thing" back-to-back, like I just did. Then, if you really want to get wild & crazy, catch "Frogs" and "Pumpkinhead." You'll be swamped out after this.FINAL ANALYSIS: The midsection of "Man-Thing" is lethargic and meandering, filled with uninteresting or undeveloped characters, but the film's attributes noted above make it worth checking out if you're into creature-on-the-loose flicks, particularly swamp monster films. On that level it's a decent movie. The greatest part is the creature itself, which is a cinematic triumph, especially if you're a fan of the comic books. But these same fans will be disappointed because the film's a very loose interpretation. It's too bad because the potential for greatness was there.GRADE: C+
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 ?!
MissLinn I think the title says it all. Man-Thing. This is the kind of film actors only agree to do because they need the money. Not that all the actors are good ones. The sheriff ( Matthew Le Neves ) have the same facial expression during the whole film. The woman ( Rachael Taylor ) he fancy is overacting to the roof. The brothers Thibadeaux are caricatures. And I mean, how many boiled alligator-heads do you actually need? The Mant-hing itself is pretty well done, but a bit small. And not very scary, maybe he need a set of really big teeth ? I have not read the comic-book ( because I do not read comic-books ). Maybe Marvel went to far? Now, why the hell is Alex O'loughlin in this mess?? He is a solid actor and way to good looking guy. Alex honey, if you need money, just call me, OK?