A few thoughts: Often considered the last of the classic Universal monsters, this is a fairly standard monster movie that arrived at the perfect time to help usher in a new wave of creature features. Released the same year as the original Gojira, it's safe to say 1954 was a pretty important year for these kind of movies, and while I have never really loved this movie, its influence on horror can be seen from a mile away. With beautiful underwater cinematography and one hell of an awesome monstrous costume, a good deal of what makes this particular film so good comes from how relatively unique it was for movies of its time. Instead of just being an irradiated slug or a giant turkey or something, this creature is just an alternate man-like evolution and is in ways sympathetic, with the human characters trespassing on its territory leading it to feel threatened. It isn't an all-time horror classic in my eyes, but marks a significant turning point within the genre, and must be regarded as such. Also, it's worth looking into as an early inspiration for Jaws.
If you've seen the older Universal monster movies it's worth a look, and fans of people-in-monster-costume movies should find plenty to enjoy, as well as horror historians.
My grade: B
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