Let's start with what the movie excelled at. The monstrous blob itself was a great creature. It has no remorse, can't be reasoned with, and is insatiable. The backstory provided explained enough without becoming dull and complicated. The deaths in this film were beautifully orchestrated. with what would seem like a rather simple way to dispatch its victims (by engulfing them and dissolving them) the kills were not repetitive. A failed date rape with the woman's shell housing the blob that strikes out once the would be assailant goes in for a grope. A man pulled down the drain of a sink while he is being dissolved. A woman trapped in a phone booth as the blob crushed the glass to rush in and absorb her. You get the idea. The visual effects were also top notch for the time. Some of the shots come off cheesy, but visual effects are bound to age.
The setting of The Blob is the fictional town of Aborville, California. This little sleepy town praying for snow to bring economical prosperity reminded me of my little hometown of Big Bear Lake, California. I think for that reason the isolation of the film's location struck me personally. It gave the movie a nice claustrophobic feel to it. The characters are trapped in their little rut way of life when the blob descends upon them and the government quarantines them. There's nowhere to go.
Now for the list of ways this movie failed. All the characters were stereotypes. You have your bad boy with a heart of gold, the cheerleader, the kooky bum, the evil government scientist, the crazy priest, the younger brother with his bad influence friend... and on and on. It was difficult to care about any of them as they were all shallow and typical sorts of people one would expect in a small town. They didn't feel like real people, just place holders. Although some seemingly innocent people die, there were a number of the '80's cliched immoral characters getting killed in horrible ways. The minute the camera lands on the two teens drinking and getting frisky in a parked car, you know there is going to be some gore following close behind. Much of the dialogue and plot was super cheesy and predictable.
Plot holes were so abundant in this film you have to stumble your way through it. For example, the blob eats half of the bum in the hospital, then swallows up Meg's date whole, but leaves her unconscious right next to it. Also, she is the only one to respond to the screaming (the doctor and the staff apparently didn't feel the need to come running). Brian manages to flee a helicopter and a well trained government task force with great ease by merely jumping a broken bridge. Not a single bullet hits him. The blob is able to explode out the sewers, rupturing the street near the final confrontation and yet takes it sweet time breaking into the building or the windows of the snowmaker truck Brain is trapped in. I could go on.
The ending especially felt lack luster. After all the fabulous kills prior in the movie, the blob emerges to attack the gathered town as a huge wad of prechewed gum. It snatches some people as they run, makes a weak attempt at breaking into the building the rest have barricaded themselves in. I should care, The whole population is in peril, but honestly I'm not attached to any of the characters so I'm not really at the edge of my seat. Then the hero and heroine take turns saving each other while destroying the blob. He suddenly develops a case of caring about the community when he had previously been only interested in his own welfare. She magically becomes super bad-ass and goes on the offensive when she was previously running and screaming through the whole flick, relying on Brian. It was too quick a change in character that feel flat for me. Not to mention that these two teens somehow had the balls to confront this massive monster on their own after all the people they have witnessed it eating. It just stank of contrived to me.
Overall, I would recommend watching this to enjoy the death scenes and cheesiness. If you're looking for well-rounded characters or a plot that lacks oddles of holes, this one probably isn't for you.
The characters in this movie WERE stereotypes -- they were all exact duplicates of the cast of characters in the 1958 version! Well, except for the cheerleader's cheesy Eighties' badassery -- that was new. And while I thought it was a refreshing change from the 1958 girlfriend character, it still reeked.
ReplyDeleteI was glad to see somebody else noticed the two main characters took turns "saving" each other. And yeah, the two teens in 1988 confronted the Blob because ALL the teens in the 1958 version did!
Of course, this was because the only other movies around this same time that dealt with these new, exotic, SCARY "teenagers" portrayed them as bad guys. In the original The Blob, we got to see how maybe these "teens" aren't so bad, after all.
Wow, I couldn't agree with you more on your post. The only difference is that I liked the film. All the things you cite that you didn't like, I agree. All the stereotypes and cliches really did bug me. So why did i like it? Hell, I don't know. Perhaps I'm just giving the director kudos for his animation skills nearly four decades ago.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of the things that happened were predictable and it was immediately known who was good, who was bad, and who I expected to die. I hear the original was good too, but I doubt I'll waste the time checking it out.