Fantastic and Refreshing

Rating: 10/10 (20 January 2008)

This film was truly epic. The pacing at the beginning was slow, granted. But after that, the whole film was a roller-coaster adrenaline rush. The effects were well done, the characters lifelike and realistic. When the helicopter goes down and you hear Hud praying to Jesus and god and whoever else happens to be listening, you think "this is exactly what I would be doing" The movie isn't trying to glorify anything, the heroes don't do anything too terribly stupid, or find a way, singlehandedly, to destroy the earth. Instead, they're just trying to survive. This movie was everything that the Matthew Broderick version of Godzilla and War of the Worlds SHOULD have been (Namely, massive amounts of destruction, and no Matthew Broderick or Tom Cruise) The "Gimmick" of having the entire film shot as if it had merely been shot on a home camera, was, in my opinion, pretty awesome. It made me feel queasy sometimes, but the overall effect was definitely worth it, by all means.
People who disliked this movie just didn't get it, or something. I don't fully understand their complaints. The action and pacing were excellent, and the characters were great. I only hope that there is... I hesitate to say a sequel, because those are rarely good. But, I hope there's another connected film. It seems like the start of a very promising franchise, akin to Alien.