"That was an unconventional encounter."

Rating: 5/10 (16 August 2017)

Juvenile, clichÃ©-ridden CGI spectacle. Not a sincere moment in the whole thing. Just action and CGI cartoonery for the sake of it. Set in the 1970s but little effort is made to make it seem authentic to that era. Everything is too clean, too pretty, too modern. Textbook Hollywood polish. Seems like the only reason it's even set back then is to shoehorn in some anti-military angle that is out of tone with the rest of the story. None of the performances resonate. There's the occasional chuckle at some of the characters' lines but that's it. Once John C. Reilly shows up, it practically becomes a full-blown comedy.
Lots of things don't make sense, like a giant squid in what appears to be a few feet of water. The special effects are so-so but nothing that reinvents the wheel. In some places they are outright bad. The designs for the skullcrawler creatures is very unimpressive. The movie advocates the Hollow Earth theory, which amused me to no end mainly because I know how that triggers some people. Another annoying thing is this gag that never works but is used more than once: a person suddenly discovers a part of their natural surroundings is actually a monster. "Oh don't sit on that log" and such. It's a pathetic attempt at some kind of jump scare and they use it a few times. Ugh. All that being said, it's entertaining for what it is: dumb action movie with giant creatures. Go into it with that expectation and you'll probably be fine with it. Expect anything remotely intelligent and you'll have a bad two hours.