OK, but not a must see

Rating: 3/10 (8 June 2008)

After seeing previews I was ready to watch this film.
The beginning clips of the film make it seem very believable with the intro. You actually feel you are watching a home video. Similar to the "blair witch project" but not quite as "raw footage" as that.
During this time, you get to know the characters briefly and get an overview of who is who. It actually is a little boring.
Then it switches gears, still filming as if watching a home movie, and you are taken to a party scene. This part is very boring and could not hold my interest. I would have rather them moved ahead. It seemed a little unnecessary and really had me ready to move on to another movie.
It then picked up a little when the "news" breaks in during the party. Some of the reactions are a little over done, in my opinion. They all leave the party to find out what is going on.
Havoc ensues and everyone is running for cover. Their curiosity gets the best of them and they just have to go out in the danger, debris, and unknown.
The movie begins to pick up at this point. You then want to see what is reeking havoc on NY but they keep you in suspense with just a few little glimpses here and there. It is effective. The movie continues as if it were some one's home video tape which makes it seem a little more believable with the movements that would take place if someone was running or walking with camera. The way the filming was done came across believable and convincing.
However, throughout the movie a few second blurbs flash with images of two of the main characters outlining their friendship. That broke up some of the effectiveness when the blurbs would pop in. Regardless of the reasoning it made the overall watching a video tape less believable and it strayed away from the original filming. There was one point it sort of worked when the characters were "viewing" the tape and you were kept occupied with the clips of the friends. But all the other break in's throughout the film sort of spoiled it.
When you finally get to some better information and some more images of the attackers in the movie, it reminds you of what the movie is about. Sadly it just did not deliver as you would expect.
The movie has some good parts, some good story points. The filming was effective for the most part and this overall could have been so much better.
The movie was OK for me, not quite what I expected. It really wasn't a movie I could watch again. Once was enough. I don't really think this is a must watch movie.