The Blair Godzalien Project

Rating: 6/10 (18 January 2008)

I saw this movie the day it came out and the theater was fairly full. Lots of hype without many clues probably drew most of these viewers. I guess I wasn't expecting much more than a scary movie about some kind of monster attacking NYC filmed by hand-held cameras. It really wasn't much more than that except for a cheesy love story thrown in.
To tell you the truth, I don't care for film shot by an unsteady hand. When I watch COPS, I don't feel like I want to smack the guy with the camera and these guys are running and even jumping fences. During Cloverfield, there were times I was thinking "Give someone else the damn camera!" The only time you get a decent view of this monster is from the helicopter near the end of the film. For viewers who like this style of filming, they would probably think it was a pretty good job.
No real plot except for the aforementioned love story. Guy and girl pretty much end their "since childhood friendship and I never realized I was in love with you" relationship during the party at the beginning of the story. Now that Godzalien is wiping out Manhattan, guy has to make his way back to girl's apartment and save her (or just have her die at an alternate location).
The film kept my attention because I was yearning for some answer or explanation or some sort of closure of just what is really going on here. Really it's just a giant Godzilla/Alien/maybe even Predator monster knocking over buildings while 'giving birth' to hundreds of mini-monsters. The military was dropping bombs and shooting all kinds of munitions at this thing with little success. This monster didn't seem too intelligent; he just didn't like tall buildings. He did however know the symbolic importance of snapping the Statue of Liberty's head off and rolling it down 59th street. Maybe he did it for the trailer.
It is worth checking out but you will probably feel the same as you would if you were downloading a late breaking news story and halfway through it you lost your internet connection.
P.S. This film is my dark horse for 'Best Score' award. The song during closing credits is outstanding.