Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The Return of Swamp Thing (1989) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Abby Arcane (Heather Locklear) returns to the swamp to visit her stepdad and learns that he's doing strange experiments that are turning people into mutants. Before long she meets Swamp Thing (Dick Durock) who was a victim of her stepfather's and before long the two are falling for each other while he is battling the bad guys.I must admit right up front that I was never a big fan of Wes Craven's SWAMP THING. I tried watching it a couple times as a kid and then again as an adult but it just never worked for me. To me the film was way too serious and it seemed to forget that it should be fun. THE RETURN OF SWAMP THING comes from Jim Wynorski and there's no question that it captures the lighter mood of a comic book and delivers some fun throughout its running time.That's not to say that this here is a perfect movie because it's far from that. Truth be told, I can understand why some people wouldn't like this and especially since it does go over-the-top with its humor. I think the film was made campy on purpose and that's proven with some of the one-liners plus it never takes itself overly serious. The campy nature works well and especially during the action scenes as well as with creature designs. The mutants all look rather good in a low-budget way and help add to the fun.Of course, the story itself is basically THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU with pinches of the first film thrown in. For the most part I thought Durock was good in the lead, although the bad dubbing certainly didn't help the character. I also like Locklear in the part as she did the "dumb blonde" thing kind of well and she was certainly easy on the eyes. The villains in the film aren't the most memorable but they're far from awful as well.THE RETURN OF SWAMP THING has a different tone than the first movie and for my money that's okay.

THE RETURN OF SWAMP THING is a sequel to the Wes Craven original, directed by Jim Wynorski this time around. Given that Wynorski has never made a decent movie, the odds are stacked against this one too, and so it proves. This is silly, campy film throughout, one which is bogged down by awful overacting from the supporting players and a general lack of coherence.The story sees the titular character returning to fight villain Louis Jourdan once more, after he somehow survived at the end of the last picture. There's some rubbery action and lots of posing from starlet Heather Locklear, but the whole thing's a cheese fest along the lines of the TROLL movies. I always found Swamp Thing one of the silliest comic book heroes (sillier even than the Toxic Avenger) and so it proves here.

I watched this before Wes Craven's original and before completing USA's TV series, which I also enjoyed. This film introduced me to Louis Jourdan-didn't know he was French beforehand, but found out soon after) and Heather Locklear. I enjoyed this film a lot, but the trailer makes it look far too comedic-yes, there are some funny one liners) but this isn't all comedy. The love story, has a kinda beauty and the beast feel. One of my favorite parts in this one, from when I was a kid, was the Arcane mansion explosion: until this film, I hadn't seen an explosion with such an elaborate and unique set up, and honestly, no movie since this has quite topped it. The actors do a nice job-although aside from Heather and Louis, most are rather unknown. I saw WC's original-from a very poor video print) but still liked it, and the TV series by USA network a couple years ago, enjoyed it as well. I for one am not hoping for a remake, but rumors of one are surfacing. Check it out, w/ an open mind...if you haven't already.

This movie is dopey and pointless. What particularly bothered me was that in the original SWAMP THING, Louis Jourdan was the bad guy. In the end, he was transformed into a hideous monster and ultimately was destroyed by Swamp Thing. However, in this sequel, of sorts, once again Louis Jourdan returns as the bad guy. Now, he might be a really resilient guy but this is ridiculous!! Why couldn't they have at least gotten a different actor so as to maintain some continuity? Regardless, this is just a re-hash of old stuff and offers nothing new of necessary. The original was fresh and mildly interesting--this film is just an old re-tread.