I Wanted to Like this Movie

Rating: 4/10 (22 May 2010)

About halfway through the mist, I was thinking it was a solid IMDb 7 star movie. However, as it went on, my rating kept falling. It's very strange because I actually felt bad about not liking this movie. However, after it was over, I feel I am being extremely generous giving it four stars.
The pacing of the movie is a little too slow for me. Generally, this is not an issue as I prefer movies to have time to work on the plot and character development. Also, Mrs. Carmody needs the time to gain the power and the followers that she developed. However, for me, this is not what happened. The drawn out scenes were the action scenes and I think they spent too much time on those.
In contrast, when Mrs. Carmody actually becomes the powerful and leader of the fragmented group of people, her reign is cut very short. Don't get me wrong here, though. For me, Mrs. Carmody's demise was the absolute best part of the movie. Once the credits started to roll, I had to rewind to that part and watch it again.
So, perhaps it's not that the pacing is slow, but that it is slow in the wrong places and fast in the wrong places. Several times, I found myself drifting away from the film and concentrating on other things in the room. This is definitely not the effect the movie should have had on me.
Finally, I disliked the ending very much. It was a brave concept and could have been done a lot better. I like the idea of what happened (not as a person, but as a writer and trying something new), but it was done incorrectly. Less than two minutes pass by after David kills everyone in the car before the mist clears up and the soldiers show up. I found this highly unbelievable. If David had passed out in the car and woken up hours later and seen everything, that would have worked great. However, two minutes passed. It was hokey and I cannot really recommend this movie.
All in all, one of the biggest disappointments I have ever had with a horror movie...and that is saying a lot.