Raw, austere and fantastic

Rating: 8/10 (18 January 2008)

This was a cool movie.
The style was excellent, although don't watch it with buttered popcorn because it made me really nauseous. While annoying at times, the guy holding the camera for most of the movie had some really funny lines and the action was impeccable.
This movie's strength was that it had a lot of really awesome segments. I can think of at least half a dozen five-second moments that were utterly chaotic greatness. Particularly a gruesome situation with Marlena, for those who know what I'm talking about.
There are a lot of lulls, especially at the beginning (although the first attack makes up for it entirely) so sometimes your attention can stray. Also, I felt like the movie doesn't play with your mind enough. The movie could have been more horrifying, it had a lot more room to be scary. Nonetheless, it was really neat.
As for the monster, I don't know how to feel. They could have kept it a mystery for a little longer and it could have been better, but it really wasn't that bad. It was a realistic monster, if that makes any sense -- it was believable. It didn't suffer from looking unreal as a lot of animated things do but it was far from perfect. Mostly because it wasn't scary by any means.
I know the ending will be hit and miss with people, but I really liked it. The ending "clip" was a really sublime note to leave on and taking the beginning into account, it really linked nicely because it explained a bit but left a lot open. I wouldn't have minded some more hints as to where the monster actually came from and its motivation, but that would have been hard to do well; people get really upset with narrowing details. The way the credits came in was fantastic too, perfectly trite and uncompromising.
You leave the theatre with one of those weird, unresolved feelings but retrospect really helped the movie out for me: it does a damned good job. I can see a lot of people saying it didn't live up to the hype, but I don't think the movie's advertisements misled anything. It's a complete extension of the ads in all facets, and everyone knows how intriguing the ads were.
Again, a cool movie.
8/10