If you think you want to see this movie read this first!!!!!!

Rating: 3/10 (18 January 2008)

First of all, I understand that this movie will appeal to a certain crowd of people. But it will not appeal to most I feel. I gave it a 3 because there are certain parts that are.... well, okay. However, for the most part I just felt bored.
Problem one, the camera. I liked Blair Witch, I liked the bourne movies. People said those movies made them sick with the camera shaking.. I didn't. Even this one didn't nauseate me or give me a headache, but it was overused. Just simply overused. Any idiot can keep a camera more stable than Hud did. Also, even in parts when everybody is sitting still and the camera isn't shaking, the picture is either out of focus or out of frame... come on. Overused.
Problem two, the monster. Missiles, bombs, tanks, all sorts of ammunition expelled on this beast and nothing even phases it... even Godzilla feels pain, really. The sub-monsters that came off of it were cooler in that they were fast and scary and at least defeatable. It was obvious from the closeup of the big one that it has no exoskeleton and actually has what looks like soft spots (gills or lungs) on it's head that move when it breathes.... they weren't even scuffed after all the explosions..hmmm.
Problem three, the story. I saw every single thing coming. OOOh they are going to escape across the bridge, huh.... oh look the monster made the bridge fall down.... Rob's girlfriend is trapped in her apartment with a piece of rebar through her chest for 45 minutes.... instead of escaping I'm sure they'll go back after her in her apartment building that didn't 'quite' fall all the way over but happened to lean against an adjacent building so that you could climb out a window, blah, blah, blah, give me a break.. I'm sure she's fine and once they pick her up off the rebar she'll be able to run with the best of them.... Oh wait, that's what happens.. then everybody dies... real original. The monster seems to only want to stay in New York where thousands of troops are trying to kill it rather than crossing over to Jersey or going back to sea... oh, and the troops, wow! Thousands of troops with tanks and other heavy equipment are in the middle of Manhattan within minutes with the Brooklyn Bridge down and certain gridlock at every other entrance/exit to the island... I found myself extremely bored watching everything happen exactly as I thought it would. Even the last 3 surviving a helicopter crash while the 2 military personnel in the chopper died.. of course they lived... the movie's not over yet. And as others have said, the first 15 or so minutes at the party is absolute drivel.... waste of space.
I'll give it this, I liked the lack of music leaving you able to pick up on some of the same sounds the characters hear. I DO like the filming style, it does bring you into the situation, yet over used in this film greatly. Picking not so famous actors so that it seems like it could be anybody, and a pretty good job of keeping the details of the monster secret so that you are always looking forward to seeing it. I DO like that it doesn't give you all the answers.... but that kind of movie has to at least be entertaining or full of surprises... The people here that say it scared them or surprised them must have the mentality of five year olds. The theatre I saw it in had about 100 people in it and after the film was over EVERYBODY was laughing and saying what a horrible movie it was..
...is that how you want to spend your hard earned money??