Perhaps his best

Rating: 7/10 (28 May 2008)

Like the other genres, horror is not limited to being done one particular way, or any single type. Too bad W.S. has yet to look beyond... this. Here, it truly starts out well. I watch more or less everything he's been involved in, but I haven't spent a lot of money on it, several of them were lent or given to me by acquaintances. He leaves something of a finger-print on anything he's done(harshly put, some might say that once you've seen one of his... yeah), and with both the actual quality and the audience response(they don't always go together), it's odd that he keeps getting to direct. But before its drowned out entirely in something of an ocean of blood(oh how I wish that was hyperbole... something else that's evidently alien to him is the concept that less is more), this has merit. The whole thing is pretty much bathed in CGI, mostly well-done. Some of it is there to distract and show off. The humor isn't bad, and it's seldom forced. The plot is reasonable, and the concept certainly is interesting. The pacing is OK. Acting varies, some of it is relatively good. The effects tend to be great. The film is just uneven... where it starts with hinting, and at least some measure of build-up(which Anderson seems to have since just about completely abandoned), it ends with a comparatively inordinate amount(if they were going for contrast, they missed the mark) of gore, at times grotesque. I'm not saying there's something wrong with that style, the main thing here is how it doesn't fit with the rest, and the overall issue is that this appears to be the only kind he'll make. Throwing violence mercilessly at the viewers, underlined with loud heavy rock. This is, or can be, scary, and unsettling. It just doesn't deliver what it sets up as what is to come... maybe Paul got bored half-way through, and subsequently made whatever was left of the flick the way those of us who've seen at least two are used to him doing this. The references herein would be better received in a more expertly done piece. I recommend this to fans of Paul W.S. Anderson and his work. Failing that, those who like their movies more or less laced with guts. 7/10