My new favorite movie

Rating: 10/10 (18 January 2008)

What the hell, I'll give it TEN. Wow! I just got back to my hotel room from seeing it at 1PM and I just keep saying Wow. It was way better than I could have imagined, and my expectations were high after the trailers and hype. The first 10 minutes or so are pretty jerky with the camera, but by about 3 minutes before the action starts, I either was used to it or the toned it down a bit. The rest of the movie the jerky footage just made it more real. I have read a lot of reviews from jaded, burned out professional critics and as usual, the bad things they had to say did happen for me. I saw a couple Pros say that the monster was shown too much, the plot sucked, and the acting was horrible. I felt that they did a great job of hiding the monster through most of it. Even in several dead on shots of IT the thing was obscured by smoke from missile trails. The acting was great as they convinced me that I was really running for my life with REAL people. They were like my own group of friends and I really felt for them. The plot was as good as was needed when you are showing video from a group of people that were having a party and a monster that should only be real in Hollywood appears in their lives and tears the city apart. No one could ever know what it is or where it came from when it just starts happening. If this happened to you and your friends the same way, I suppose there wouldn't be much plot either. The plot is people are trying live and save friends that are across town. The creature -- I will not give any description to ruin it, but I will say it is the scariest, most inventive monster since Aliens, Pumpkinhead, and the first time I watched Jeepers Creepers. That thing and the sound it makes when it yells out may give me my first nightmare in 10 years tonight. The special effects are as real as being there. Well, I just wanted to place my vote on this being a very, very, very good movie. Excellent actually. And I plan on seeing it again tonight. Go see it and tell your friends!!! Oh, in case you are easily bothered by the jumpy camcorder stuff, plan ahead and sit midway back or in the back. I am the kind of guy who usually sits closer than midway, but this time I played it safe after reading the warnings about the jumpiness and it helped..-----9PM--Back from 2nd viewing----------------------- I can't believe it but it was better the 2nd time!!! And the evening viewing when the place was packed rather than maybe 20 people at my first one was even more fun. I got to witness a lot more audience response. The same thing happened at the end though. After the craziest scariest action-packed monster-movie ride they had been on in their life for the past hour, the immediate end and pitch black silence stayed that way for like a full minute. Everyone is completely still with open mouths. It's like you were riding a roller coaster, screaming your head off and in an instant it's silent and you realize you are sitting on your couch. You just have to take it all in and wonder what just happened. Then the murmurs start and little kids start talking to their friends about it and finally the adults start saying WOW and THAT WAS NUTS. I heard a guy behind me on the way out tell his friend it reminded him of the first time he saw aliens as a 8 year old in 1979. This truly is a groundbreaking movie. I think I will go again tomorrow. Each time I walk out I want it to keep going so badly that when I see the normal parking lot I wish it were the Devastated Manhattan in this movie just so I could see that horrible creepy monster one more time.