This concept HAD potential...

Rating: 3/10 (15 February 2008)

As most other persons on this forum, I had high expectations about the film. I'd seen a trailer or two and finally watched it, last night. As many of the other comments here mention, the plot is quite non-existing and the actors are, and will probably stay, unknown for a reason: they are not convincing me or anyone else. I don't blame only them of course, the director and screen writers must take some of the blame here.
As the summary of this comment says, this movie had the potential to be something else, but it falls rather short. If the producers wanted to try something different they should have had, instead of a 73 minute long hand-held-cam-sequence where 2/3 could have been cut away, a 20 min long hand-held-cam-sequence with all the goodies (if there were any?) in it. The movie should then continue from a normal camera perspective about the people who found the camera and what happened afterward, with many of the obvious questions the audience have being answered.
But, about the film that was actually made, there are a few things they could have done to make it so much better. The story is mostly about a guy who tries to save his ex. girlfriend from death. When our "heroes" find her, she has an iron bar stuck through her chest. Why isn't she dead? If she had been dead, the feeling of helplessness, hopelessness and despair would have been much more convincing, when delivered to the audience. And what about the exploding girl, it would have been better if she was just taken away (without exploding), and left the rest of us in blissful ignorance. That way you would understand that something was wrong, but nothing more.
I understand that the movie makers wanted to give us a film about what people do in crazy and strange situations, sci-fi is all about that. The hand held camera, the feeling of no questions being answered (like: why did the girl explode, where did the monster come from, what was its purpose, why did it bring all these small monsters, why didn't bullets or bombs affect it, why did the characters spend 20min of the movie at a very boring party, why did the helicopter crash, why did the monster look at the camera holder before eating him (considering the size of the monster it must probably eat 100-120 people an hour to get enough energy to be able to keep moving) and so on and so on), the fear, the screams, people being killed all around you and buildings falling down everywhere you look. Good sci-fi does not leave you with all these questions though.
For some people it can sound absurd to demand a reality check in a monster movie, but the human body and human reactions most of us know a lot about. The humans must therefore act like normal humans in an abnormal situation. So, about humans, they do not survive helicopter crashes. They are not able to breath without masks in the dust from a collapsed building. Cameras most of us are also familiar with, they do not stay up and running when being thrown several meters or handled carelessly and they do definitely NOT have a battery time that lasts 10 hours or so. Buildings do not have power if its is knocked to a 15 degree angle. It is OK that the monster can withstand bombs and grenades, because, well, it is a monster, and who knows what a monster can do?
I gave this movie 3/10 because it is built on a good idea, but the actual product is not worth more than one or two stars.