It's like this, if the monster were simply amazing and the action scenes were like-wise, this could have been an enthralling movie. But as it stands "Octaman" is essentially an hour and a half of nothing. Incidental humor is the movies only merit and it is without doubt one of the lamest monster movies of all time. Though even more horrifying yet, is the fact that there are at least three other monster flicks that are even lamer (Curse of Bigfoot, The Creeping Terror and Night Fright - not to be confused with Fright Night, which isn't bad).
So what's so bad about Octaman, well in short, everything.
Much of it's story-line is clearly lifted from the 1954 Universal classic "Creature from the Black Lagoon", so you have a good idea of what it's plot is about; and as it turns out one of the writers of Creature from the Black Lagoon also directed Octaman, but obviously without the same level of skill or success. Now to the heart of the film, the monster itself; or more accurately the suit that makes the monster. It's looks terrible. But sadly I've seen even worse. If the monster were spectacular looking much of the movies short-comings could be overlooked, but with the Octaman costume... well that's not even close to happening. Going by the title one would expect eight arms and for them all to be functional, however only two are, the other two simply hang limp, do nothing and wish they weren't in the movie. Granted many shots of the monsters head and face are amusing, but again that's only because the latex suit is so poorly designed and stupid looking. Which is another comparison one could make with the Creature from the Black Lagoon, it's monster-costume-design is amazing looking and a truly iconic creation, yet with Octaman...well it simply sucks and is UN-iconic, to say the least. Another thing to mention >>that's impossible to miss<< is how lacking in energy the monster is. Is someone's grandpa in that suit!?
As you'll see Octaman frequently bores you with several tedious go-nowhere scenes, such as the 5 minute-long night time boat scene or the lengthy tunnel crawling sequence, twice with that one. It's strange (and a break from the formula) at how few of the characters are killed by the monster, which was certainly a bad idea. Because as you know with these movies that's what's supposed to happen, the Monster kills several people and then at the end - several people kill it. That's how the formula goes, but not with Octaman. There's simply not enough mayhem to make for an exciting and entertaining monster romp; which happens to feature a monster that's so slow and so lame anyone could out-pace it, simply by walking away at a casual rate. Simply put the monster has no menace, and since the monster IS the movie, Octaman as a whole packs no menace what so ever and as a result is a profoundly boring movie. To put it another way, Octaman is to the world of cinema, that cold oatmeal is to the world of fine dining. It's no wonder that this pathetic movie was recently selected for satire by the guys from Rifftrax and to be honest that due to how dull this movie is, even they, in certain scenes, had a hard time injecting it with any sort energy or momentum. One reviewer claims that 90% of the film is "grinding tedium" and he is correct.
One other observation I could mention is: Whenever a movie dedicates that much screen-time to something as utterly mundane as a motor-home, well...you should not expect much from that movie. There must be half a dozen shots of the gangs RV doing nothing more than lazily traversing long stretches of unremarkable back roads; or even more riveting yet it can be seen lighting up the screen in several scenes with the cast gathered around it, doing such exciting things such as talking and drinking coffee or sitting in lawn-chairs while eating sandwiches.....and drinking coffee. Yep, that's the level of film-making where talking about here, sounds riveting, right? And after awhile this RV of their's seems to somehow, someway, become a member of the cast. It's their mobile home base, without it they're powerless. And I must say that the vehicles speed is perfectly representative of the movies pace, that is very s-l-o-w.
So in closing Octaman is: Terribly lame. Terribly boring. And well frankly, terribly terrible.
So what's so bad about Octaman, well in short, everything.
Much of it's story-line is clearly lifted from the 1954 Universal classic "Creature from the Black Lagoon", so you have a good idea of what it's plot is about; and as it turns out one of the writers of Creature from the Black Lagoon also directed Octaman, but obviously without the same level of skill or success. Now to the heart of the film, the monster itself; or more accurately the suit that makes the monster. It's looks terrible. But sadly I've seen even worse. If the monster were spectacular looking much of the movies short-comings could be overlooked, but with the Octaman costume... well that's not even close to happening. Going by the title one would expect eight arms and for them all to be functional, however only two are, the other two simply hang limp, do nothing and wish they weren't in the movie. Granted many shots of the monsters head and face are amusing, but again that's only because the latex suit is so poorly designed and stupid looking. Which is another comparison one could make with the Creature from the Black Lagoon, it's monster-costume-design is amazing looking and a truly iconic creation, yet with Octaman...well it simply sucks and is UN-iconic, to say the least. Another thing to mention >>that's impossible to miss<< is how lacking in energy the monster is. Is someone's grandpa in that suit!?
As you'll see Octaman frequently bores you with several tedious go-nowhere scenes, such as the 5 minute-long night time boat scene or the lengthy tunnel crawling sequence, twice with that one. It's strange (and a break from the formula) at how few of the characters are killed by the monster, which was certainly a bad idea. Because as you know with these movies that's what's supposed to happen, the Monster kills several people and then at the end - several people kill it. That's how the formula goes, but not with Octaman. There's simply not enough mayhem to make for an exciting and entertaining monster romp; which happens to feature a monster that's so slow and so lame anyone could out-pace it, simply by walking away at a casual rate. Simply put the monster has no menace, and since the monster IS the movie, Octaman as a whole packs no menace what so ever and as a result is a profoundly boring movie. To put it another way, Octaman is to the world of cinema, that cold oatmeal is to the world of fine dining. It's no wonder that this pathetic movie was recently selected for satire by the guys from Rifftrax and to be honest that due to how dull this movie is, even they, in certain scenes, had a hard time injecting it with any sort energy or momentum. One reviewer claims that 90% of the film is "grinding tedium" and he is correct.
One other observation I could mention is: Whenever a movie dedicates that much screen-time to something as utterly mundane as a motor-home, well...you should not expect much from that movie. There must be half a dozen shots of the gangs RV doing nothing more than lazily traversing long stretches of unremarkable back roads; or even more riveting yet it can be seen lighting up the screen in several scenes with the cast gathered around it, doing such exciting things such as talking and drinking coffee or sitting in lawn-chairs while eating sandwiches.....and drinking coffee. Yep, that's the level of film-making where talking about here, sounds riveting, right? And after awhile this RV of their's seems to somehow, someway, become a member of the cast. It's their mobile home base, without it they're powerless. And I must say that the vehicles speed is perfectly representative of the movies pace, that is very s-l-o-w.
So in closing Octaman is: Terribly lame. Terribly boring. And well frankly, terribly terrible.