Bewildered

Rating: Null/10 (13 July 2008)

I didn't buy this movie. It was given to me by a friend to add to my DVD collection which I have catalogued on my computer. I rate each movie on a scale of 1 to 100 as I see it (which, of course, doesn't always agree with how the pundits rate movies) but when it comes to rating this movie, I am totally bewildered! Is it brilliant or was it a total waste of time? One thing's for sure, the producers were extremely brave to commit finance to it (especially when one sees the size of the crew in the credits)! The style is certainly unique (to me) and, for that reason alone, I found myself having to "see" it quite differently. Had I looked at this as a "feature film", I think I would probably have given up after the first ten minutes because the "amateur videographer" style is rather like visiting someone-you-barely-know with a mutual friend and, out of politeness, being obliged to watch their home videos! However, once the monster appears, the movie takes on a totally different perspective. When I looked at the "alien invasion" in the same sort of light as, for example, the events of 9/11 - that is to say, something that really happened, it took on a whole new sort of meaning. I found myself imagining that this had been a REAL event and, just as the movie is portrayed, a camcorder that had belonged to someone who had had the presence of mind to run it right through it had been found and the footage was being shown on TV afterwards. Now THAT was scary! I don't feel qualified to either criticise or applaud this movie (except, perhaps, to say that the "pre-monster" footage is way too long) so I'm not going to either encourage anyone to watch it nor am I going to warn them not to. All I'm going to do is admonish potential viewers to prepare themselves for something very unusual and, if they let their imaginations loose, something quite terrifying. Maybe, just maybe - IT COULD HAPPEN!!!