The Lake (2022)
A monster will rise
Felt like a monster movie tonight, and I happen to have one on my backlog that I had heard from somewhere that I don’t remember. Funnily enough I had re-watched the 2014 Godzilla just last night, so it seems like I’m just in the mood for some big old stompy boys. Given the choke-hold that the big G has on the market, I thought we’d swing on down to Taiwan for a bit - so don’t blame me for not saying names and mispronouncing everything I do try - tonight we go to The Lake.
If I’m being entirely honest, I’m not entirely sure this thing has as clear cut a story as something like the normal big monster flick that’s using it’s big critter as some sort of allegory. Truth be told, I think it has something to do with being one people and how we should protect each other, but I’ll at least be honest about it up front that I’m really not sure. The basic plot line follows people finding an egg, big momma not being happy about said people finding the egg, and (normally off screen) violence ensuing. This repeats as a process a good number of times, with the switch-up once where a little monster shows up instead of the big one, going absolutely ham on the locals for whatever reason. One of our leads gets bit by this little guy and begins to have some sort of connection to it - but it’s not really super explained in the movie itself, and quite frankly I’m not familiar with the legend behind the creature beyond the brief implication that it was something that used to be worshiped one way or another.
There’s a bunch of characters, and a bunch of things going on to them. We have a pair of detectives who get more screen time towards the end when the one and his family problems are added in for some human drama. We have the original leads, who are missing a girl that disappeared and want to find her, at least before their more pressing matter is not getting dead. Of course, there’s the little monster getting caught as one inevitably would suspect, and it and the big momma monster have a little bit of their own personalities, although it’s largely more of an animal-like interaction with people than it is a serious personality with heavy expressions. I can’t really speak towards there being any real arcs that feel stand-out, as most the arcs feel like they pop up right before they are ended. Still, that technically counts as character arcs, in which I think there are two of them, although the one main’s I’m not sure how much of it is a growth from “guy who drinks a bunch” to “being responsible” as much as I just kind of took it that way.
The actors do a pretty good job from what I can tell. I started with the english dub for all of a minute or so, and just couldn’t get into it for some reason and opted to do the native language with english closed captioning instead. From what I can feel, i think they all did a pretty good job. I can’t really say if the lines were delivered great because I’m not aware of the intonations and such of the languages, but body language wise it comes off pretty darn good. At times the interaction feel a little less impressive and natural than they could - but that could also be a bit of a cultural thing. The creatures have some movements and the likes, but I wouldn’t call it any more acting than the T-Rex in the original Jurassic Park.
Big momma looks quite good.
Of course, the thing that drew me in to begin with was the creature. The creature looks pretty good, especially the big one. I’m thinking its a good mix of good and alright practical and digital effects, with the little fella falling much more into the digital feel than practical. It’s kind of weird to think of that the giant head would be opted for real instead of the thing that could probably have just been a suit - and very well might have been for some scenes - but it could also entirely be a situation where at time’s it’s just getting a computer assisted glow up. For sure though, there’s time that are straight up CG critters, and although it’s not bad it isn’t really fully convincing that it isn’t fake either. Wounds and the likes are pretty gore-less, but the blood effects look fine when people show up scratched up or bit by the creature.
Costumes are pretty modern, but the different locale does at least provide a few flavors outside the normal of what I’d see. Likewise with the locations themselves, where it isn’t necessarily anything that you haven’t seen before but it’s still well done. Audio itself is also nothing that really excels as far as the soundtrack goes to me. It’s not bad, it’s just more of what I’d expect, and when it isn’t fading in to the background. The creature sounds is great, with a nice mix of roars and the likes. It might not be quite as iconic as the old zilla roar, but it’s good.
Over all nothing here is particularly bad, but I also don’t feel it’s particularly amazing either. I feel like the people versus nature and other various things that you could pick up as commentary. I, of course, don’t focus much on that sort of angle but I can see that it’s there anyways. I won’t say it’s handled the best, but you know what? It doesn’t just beat me over the head with it’s point the entire time so I’ll more than enough give it credit for that.
The little guy sometimes not so much.
I got what I wanted out of the movie - a monster. Honestly, I technically got two sizes of monsters, so I got more than what I had wanted in that regard. The acting is done fine as far as I can tell, and all the different parts feel as though they work together fine so I’d say it’s far from being a bad movie. The pacing might set some people off, as there is a couple of different times where it feels a bit like padding the runtime, but I don’t ever really get the impression that this was called in at all, and enjoyed a good amount of it even if I wasn’t incredibly impressed by anything either.