Unlike the previous review, so difficult to write it was, this review can say the worst thing about The Monster That Challenged the World (1957) may have been the title of the movie. An ugly, uncouth mouthful, devoid of grace or inspiration, it sits like a bad piece of cheese, neither mold nor food, but something in between.
But the movie itself – for its era, this is not too bad at all. Tension, anticipation, initial success, a setback, the plot elements are there and are competent. Shockingly, a pretty girl dies – so we know, again for the era, this is a serious movie with some thought in it. The acting is competent, or even more than competent; the sudden deaths somewhat macabre, somewhat mysterious; the characters have a life outside of hunting monsters, although the romantic subplot was a bit stereotypical. The cinematography was competent at worst; the SCUBA scenes were mostly very clear and well presented.
The special effects were variable. Much of it was actually well above our expectations; however, the final monster was a trifle cheesy. Interestingly, the extermination of the monsters left us with the question – are they really all dead? How do you know? Did the scriptwriter really mean to leave us with this ambiguous ending? The characters don’t seem to be aware of it, so was a sequel planned?
So it makes for a better afternoon movie than we expected, overall. We even looked forward to it (we spread it over three nights). Now, I’ll grant the themes appeared to be mundane and uninteresting, but there’s something to be said for a well-made monster movie.
And if you don’t want to strangle the little girl at the end of the movie, you’re a better viewer than I.
