Decent enough movie, Terrible ending.

Rating: 3/10 (4 July 2015)

The pacing was OK. Much of the action centered around a relatively small area of location. It had a lot of the usual clichés often seen in such horror movies of a likewise nature such as zombie, or apocalypse, or general unknown versus man type themes. The sense of mystery develops pretty early into the story and has a few key cues to emphasize a sense of danger.
It resembles quite closely the nature and pacing of the Fog but reflects a atypical zombie apocalypse movie in the nature of how the characters are located and behave. The impending sense of doom and the sheer mass nature of the threat also add to that vibe.
***SPOILER*** What sucks most about the movie is the horrible ending. It is not just the ending is such a let down but the way the story develops up until the end should have deserved a much different ending. The main character especially and secondly the other characters featured in the last few scenes present the viewer with a "do not give up" easily mentality yet, we what we are shown is far from what we expected in regards to the character and that attitude constantly demonstrated throughout the movie. It is emphasized even more a few minutes after that critical yet flawed decision. The best scene is when the cultist nut job leader mets her just desserts but, it would have been nice if all the nut jobs in her gang also got a fitting punishment for their evil actions. So, as a viewer I feel let down twice in big ways and thus quite unfulfilled.
The enemies resemble a cross between Deep Rising, Monster, Starship Troopers, and some of the creatures seen in the British TV series, Primevil. Yet in a sense they lacked consistency and though in some ways that added to the unknown sense of fear in other ways it made it seem as if there was no concrete plan or nature to the enemies. If you like being filled in by the end of a story, then this movie is not for you. There are too many unknown variables by the movie's end to get a good grip on. It would have been nice to understand the nature of the mist. Was it a new alien environment or some poison gas or was it just colored smoke natural to Earth? The previous two, we would expect more reaction by the humans or a more cataclysmic event affecting the Earth and its atmosphere. Creatures like that can not exist in the human world based on what it appears to be which are mostly types of insects. There is not enough oxygen in the air for that. If that had been made a little more clear with respect to the nature of the mist and/or more about the world the creatures come from, then viewers would not feel like they are hanging as much. No one I know who watched this liked the ending either. And I am pretty sure they were also a bit left in the dark about what the enemy was.
***SPOILER END***
It is not a bad thing to have some mystery or even leave a few things unanswered but it feels like though the setting is certainly a good premise that it leaves too many open ends to delve into the story. It is a reflection of the rushed stories we often find in anime, where often when watching many a anime, I feel like I walked into the middle of a story with no idea how I got there. Granted, it doesn't quite feel like the story is in the middle at the start but, it doesn't quite feel ready to jump to where it does later on either based on the setting.
For the most part, it is a we'll enough paced movie with a good premise, but it feels like something is missing and that by the close of the movie I feel let down. It doesn't close with nearly the same impact as the story as a whole nor as it unfolds. The acting starts off well enough but later it feels a bit rushed. A few times it resembles Star Trek in the sense of the red shirts. Some parts are so pointless, it makes you want to roll your eyes. There are highlights that make me think of John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13, the original one. Then there are moments right out of the worst parts of the lamest zombie movies. I can not give this a strong review because what is wrong and missing are too heavy to overlook or forgive what is expected from Stephen King or those who adapt his works.