The dialogue is cheesy, overly-wordy and too heavy on exposition. Richard Denning has an obnoxious character and manages to be just as annoying. And the 3D effects lack sharpness and look rushed and somewhat dated too(look to the Vincent Price version of House of Wax to see how 3D in a horror film could be done well). Despite these flaws, and these are all personal feelings not objective, it is genuinely scary and a lot of fun and regarding monster movies of the 50s-60s it is one of the better ones. The underwater sequences are beautifully shot and very memorable, and the sets and locations have a great deal of atmosphere as well as looking quite exotic. The monster is essentially a man in a suit, you don't care here actually because unlike other monster movies of the era the suit looks great and the monster actually has a personality, managing to be menacing and poignant. The music score fits perfectly, the bombastic monster theme is creepy and not too predictable while at other times the orchestration is nicely understated. The story is simple(and perhaps somewhat by-the-numbers), not too simplistic but easy to follow, but doesn't ever feel ponderous, is suspenseful, has enough in the story and its action to keep entertaining and has a real sense of fun- and legitimate fun rather than guilty pleasure fun- to it. The most memorable and most genuinely scary was the scene with Julia Adams swimming alone with the monster lurking underneath watching her, it is frightening to a kid and adult as it plays on anybody's fear of venturing into the sea and to what is underneath lurking. Steven Spielberg's Jaws also explored this and to even greater and creepier effect. Creature from the Black Lagoon is smoothly directed and has some good characters. The acting has much criticised, but personally it didn't come across as that bad apart from Denning, Julia Adams is the most noteworthy but Richard Carlson is also a competent and likable lead. In conclusion, flawed but fun, has a great monster and has moments that do unsettle, which makes its reputation as a monster movie classic justified. 7/10 Bethany Cox