Nice try but I'm unimpressed and sorely disappointed...

Rating: 5/10 (30 December 2012)

This is an honest review of this movie from me, I am not going to hold anything back so please understand if I really hate an element of it I will say so. First off the characters and I will try to keep it short, simple, to the point.
Marty is my favorite character, I love how he portrays the fool and the stoner as he does an excellent job and is the only redeemable character in the movie. I actually agree with his philosophy that humanity needs a reboot, he is the only character that makes sense in this movie and properly uses his head even before the gas hits them. The fact the pot blend he uses makes him immune, I would be worried to if I were one of the people controlling this. He is the biggest threat to this plan, hands down.
The Jock is decently played but he is the scholarly kind, Chris Hemsworth is a great actor, though I am not a fan of stereotypes and how his character is also on a scholastic scholarship actually bends them. So no issues here, but I think his death coulda been different and more interesting than an evil kinevil stunt.
The slut just plays it as mentioned before, however I liked her before the gas and after it I just despise her. I am not surprised she is among the first to go, cliché there and this kinda lame death too. Unimpressed with this character, but it's catering to the typical audience. I do not even think the actress who plays her is even pretty, then again I do not have a thing for celebs as their more trouble than their worth.
The virgin acts so naive that it's not even funny, seriously her role is the lamest of the bunch. I am sick of horror movie "virgins" acting so naive and stupid, and walking into the scenario like a blind man walking into the pit. Her character annoys me the most, which makes her the most unlikeable.
The scholar is OK, nothing much to say about him except that he should have the common sense even under the influence of the gas to know what is going on. Honestly he is my third favorite character after the fool and the jock. The jock himself could have easily passed for the scholar, so this role is kind of redundant except they needed 5 sacrifices.
For characters I give this movie a 4/10, Marty saves it as I love his character.
Plot: The plot as mentioned before is rather lackluster, while the concept is good it is poorly executed and this is my honest opinion. Joss Whedon has done much greater things in Buffy, ANgel, Firefly, Serenity, Dollhouse, and other series as well as movies. I know this is supposed to be a satire but I'm not laughing, I am rather bored at how the character interaction seems to develop awkwardly and none of the characters can really relate to each other unless manipulated. The first half of the movie is by far the worst part, only until the ending does this half baked and mediocre plot actually show promise.
One would think the absence of stars would be a bad thing, honestly if I saw that I'd be assuming something is up and trying to find the cause immediately. The whole feel of the movie leading up to the ending is like they tried to cram too much into the short span of the movie at once. This movie felt rushed and thus the poor execution, and if anybody suggests splitting up in a setting like this I too would be immediately pushing to stay as a group and force my opinion on the group.
The ending however is genius and the only saving grace, almost all movies end up with survivors and they move on to live disturbed but productive lives. Happy ending somewhat, this movie takes that cliché and burns it in the fire. So there is little to this movie besides the ending, that I enjoyed plotwise. How the fool survives being killed is beyond me, and leaves a huge and glaring plot hole. You don't see them die but also you do not see them escape, which leaves me to wonder if this part was not thought through too well. Honestly come on Joss, you can do better than this kind of shoddy writing that leaves holes in the plot where it seriously looks and sounds like someone died.
Clichés are good and all IF they mesh together well, but honestly their over-saturating this film and there seems to be no escape from them in Hollywood today. So overall for plot I'd give this movie a 3/10, not horrible but not even average or sub par. This is sub-sub-par and in my opinion a movie to watch as background noise.
Now as for the quality of acting, what can one expect? With headliners like Chris Hemsworthm Fran Kranz, and others this has decent acting. Though it is stereotypical and a satire I still think they could have done way better, but the acting is nothing special and very typical. I give the acting job a 2/10 with the exception of Chris Hemsworth and Fran Kranz. Amy Ackers is also great, though she has such a minor role in it, seriously she should have had more of a role in my opinion.
Overall I give this movie a 3/10 rating as it could have been way better even for a satire, but due to many factors it fails as a movie. This also rates as being classified at background noise, a movie to watch while your doing something monotonous to break up the tedious nature of whatever your doing with something to distract your eyes.