The Water Horse is a nice little movie that spins an entertaining, fanciful tale based on the legend of the Loch Ness Monster. The boy at the center of the story, Angus (Alex Etel), finds a mysterious egg on the beach in 1940s Scotland, and before he knows it, he's raising his own personal little creature (who doesn't stay little for long), which he names "Crusoe".
The story isn't terribly original from that point on (Angus works to keep Crusoe a secret, then slowly reveals him to a few people, and soon there's a major effort to avoid the authorities and get Crusoe safely out to sea... you know the drill), but it's all done with enthusiasm, sensitivity, and some exciting direction from Jay Russell (My Dog Skip).
There are a few missed opportunities. Initially, a point is made that Angus is terribly afraid of water, but when he needs to search the loch in a boat for Crusoe, and later, when he rides on Crusoe's back both above and below the surface of the loch, Angus is suddenly not afraid of the water. There could have been a terrific scene where Angus makes a bold decision to overcome his fear of water so he can interact with his amphibious friend. And the movie could have benefited from another scene or two supporting the theme of Angus's loneliness and heartache over his missing father (lost in the war), which is a major reason he becomes so close to Crusoe. But the issue is just kind of mentioned and dropped, instead of fueling some potentially good character scenes between Angus and his mother and/or other characters close to Angus. Oh, well. These missed opportunities aren't dealbreakers.
The special effects are very good, I'll say that. The problem with CGI is that, well done or not, people immediately recognize it as CGI so there's never any more of that giddy "I wonder how they did THAT?" excitement when we see special effects any more. However, really good CGI at least generates a feeling of "wow, that really looks amazing", and The Water Horse has at least half a dozen scenes that accomplish this. The water glistening off the baby Crusoe as he swims around in a trash can filled with water early in the movie, similar scenes later when a seal-sized Crusoe is hiding in a bathtub, and finally all the scenes in the loch when the dinosaur-sized Crusoe is giving Angus rides, attacking military craft, and just jumping around, they're all wonderfully done.
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