Good monster movie, but... (contains plot reveals)

Rating: 6/10 (1 February 2008)

At a leaving party for Rob, who's heading to Japan, explosions are heard in the city. Going out onto the street, the head of The Statue Of Liberty crashes down and in the distance a glimpse of a creature is seen. Rob and some friends heads into the chaos to find Beth, who he's in love with, as she's trapped and hurt in the city. all the while recording everything on digital camera.....
The actors are mainly unknown, which is a good thing as it keeps you wondering who will survive, and how many as the monster and the military battle it out on the streets. The script is okay, but most of the lines are of the 'OH MY GOD' variety or screaming at some points. The actors do enough to convince with their performances being scared and on occasion funny.
The start of the movie, during the party is long enough to introduce the characters and how they relate to each other. This of course, means that when the destruction occurs you do care who is going to live or die.
The director Matt Reeves does well not only in keeping the story moving, but also in the decision to only show glimpses of the monster. This makes it more frightening. There are a couple of moments from a story point of view where the director has obviously set up a scare to happen, but on the whole it's done well
The appearance of the monster is never explained, which is good. Most movies of this nature, such as Godzilla tend to explain the origin on the monster, but here it simply shows up and chaos reigns! The effects are impressive. The scenes of devastation in New York are stunning, and the creature effects are pretty good, both the huge creature, and also it's 'offspring'.
There are some good shocks through-out the movie, the stand-out scene being a tunnel attack from the 'offspring'.
But.... there are flaws.
The story is very similar (guy looking for girl in a city in chaos) to an 80's movie Miracle Mile, right down to the downbeat ending.
The idea of the movie being showing from the point of view from video being recorded isn't new. Movies such as The Blair Witch Project and Diary Of The Dead have used the same point of view, but to be fair the footage shot is impressive.
The movie is only around 90 minutes long. As a result, things are kept tight, and also believable with regard to the battery of the camera. A longer movie, might have had battery problems with the cameras!!
As a monster movie it's great. Does it live up to it's hype? Not quite. But it's still worth seeing.