He is not trying to be Peter Jackson! It's also a slap on the Million Dollar Baby

Rating: 10/10 (27 November 2007)

This reflects my opinion, so read it as such before you sit and fume! People are upset because there are not enough creature scenes. The same people were ticked off because PJ's King Kong had too many creature scenes! Darabont was not trying to make a creature feature, at least not in the conventional sense. He was rather trying to show the brutal creatures humans can be when stripped off their societal masks. Did he succeed? Yes!!! I was creeped out by the hysterical preaching of the lady, the stoic expression of the stabber, the crowd as they make a human sacrifice (Wicker Man, any one?), talk about people being disposable. No one in the movie was a pure black and white character. Excellent shades of grey. See the movie so I don't spoil it for you. You will either hate the ending or will be left with an indescribable pathos, as I can't say I loved it. It was one of the few movies that left me speechless at the end. I hated the ending of Million Dollar Baby, because yes, I do believe that life is sacred and should not be extinguished through so called mercy killing. So, in my understanding Darabont was taking a stand against mercy killing. The final kicker for me was the woman who is shown at the end atop a military vehicle who had been pleading with the shoppers to help her home is safe and sound with her children, while the 'hero' (again I love the shades of grey) responds to her plea that he has to look after his own son, and ends up killing him with his own hands. What an amazing example of how self-serving nature is not the best means in a desperate situation. I don't know what I would have done in his situation but it surely made me think of moral choices from a different perspective. I thought it was an excellent movie that had enough gore for me, but the real sense of the movie comes through the human players. One of the best movies of 2007! I am not your typical artsy fartsy critic because I enjoy movies like POTC, Shrek, etc. too