What Can I Say But

Rating: 6/10 (18 May 2008)

The entire flick left a bad taste in my mouth. And this bad taste seemed very unnecessary. Even before the shock ending which has garnered much publicity and praise for its daring the movie wasn't working for me. First of all the character Thomas Jane portrays isn't very likable. Despite the fact that he's presented as a loving father and husband I just didn't buy into anything he did and could care less about him or anyone he cared about. The supporting characters didn't offer up anything and were either obstacles or mindless companions offering up little nuggets of useless plot driven advice whenever prompted by the screenplay. Perhaps the biggest issue I had with the film was the character development. When the crap went down, and it does pretty quickly, I found that all of the characters could be killed by the creatures and I wouldn't care in the slightest. In a film like this, bland unlikeable characters are a huge no no. There are some scenes which are moments of pure cinema and despite the lacking on the character development/likability end the film was very well made and the effects were intense and well done. Overall though I just can't see myself giving this anything but a half-hearted recommendation. Maybe I expected too much out of it, what with all the good word of mouth about it and it being Frank Darabont spearheading the whole thing. Whatever the reason great effects and atmosphere can only carry a movie so far without the human component to hold it all together. I give this a six out of ten for the effects and atmosphere though perhaps I'm being too generous.