Super Monster Movie

Rating: 10/10 (29 June 2011)

From the second I saw the trailer at Transformers I was hooked. I wanted to see the trailer again more than I wanted to see Transformers. I immediately was sucked into the hype (which was executed perfectly).
Rarely have I ever wanted to see a movie more, and rarely has that movie met my expectations so thoroughly. The trailers were awesome, and people trying to decipher them helped build the hype. From "It's a lion" to the people deconstructing a half second glimpse of the monster as it went out of frame. Loved the hype.
Now, the movie itself. Basically handles a huge monster invasion of New York as if it were totally realistic. People running, people looting, people not knowing what the hell is going on, etc. I love disaster movies that try to be as absolutely realistic as possible and I thought this movie did that very very well.
The monster(s) : I'm still not convinced that there weren't 2 monsters. I know the primary thought is that there was just the 1, but the one which ate Hud at the end seemed smaller, and when they bombed at the very end it seemed like the bombs were hitting far away, when the monster that ate Hud was close. Very well done in my opinion. Large, scary looking, with the little parasites falling off it that made it extra scary and cool. I almost like the parasites more than the big one. Of course the best scenes are the ones where you can see the monster walking among the buildings and wrecking stuff. I would have liked maybe 10 minutes more of these scenes, but I can live without them.
The people : OK, Hud is a bit annoying, but it's realistic to me. There's always an annoying douche. And some of his comments are funny and timely. I don't get the hate for him. I thought there was just enough of the background party scene to establish the people and a little bit of their motivations. People bang on those scenes, but they aren't bad. I love the scene where Hud's gonna talk to Marlena and loses his courage.
I would definitely like to see more obviously. I'd like to know how they killed the monster (if they did) and what happened during the naval battle shown in the pictures on the website, and what happened at the drilling station shown in the viral videos where the Japanese guys are escaping and get annihilated.
I'm pretty upset at Abrams for not making a sequel. The movie made lots of money and I want a sequel.
Best monster movie of my lifetime easily.