Couldn't suspend disbelief

Rating: 4/10 (16 May 2009)

The main gimmick of the film is that it is told through a video camera being carried by one of the characters.
I didn't believe it.
Most of the time the film felt as though it were just a perfectly normal action movie. The only times it seemed, even vaguely, like it was actually being filmed by a character in the movie was in the shots where they simulated bad cinematography. Even then the 'amateur cameraman' shots were very obviously highly skilled cameraman deliberately pretending to make mistakes.
The entire time I was watching the movie, I couldn't help but think "Would he really stick a camera in his friends' face when they're grieving or panicking? What a jerk. Shouldn't he switch the camera off and talk to his friends privately, or try to get more footage of the disaster going on?" Obviously that's not what I should have been thinking about if I'd been able to maintain any suspension of disbelief.
They tried too hard to make Blair Witch Project into a mainstream movie and in doing so managed to lose the sense that this was actually a character inside the fictitious world filming the events.
Next time, if you want to make a film like this, make the character filming a professional cameraman for the TV news trapped with his entire crew within the disaster area, struggling to escape and bring his footage back to the station. Then you'll have an excuse for perfectly steady hand-held shots, someone who films tons of footage that's none of his business and a good reason why they would film when any sane person would switch the camera off and run for their lives.