Let's cut the pretense. This movie was ultimately crap.

Rating: 7/10 (18 January 2003)

While the more arrogant people in the room like to say that those who point out the gaping plot and story holes in this "film" just don't get it, this flick is merely a bone thrown to the jack-asses who have been jonesing for that grainy, Zapruder-like offering to salivate over since the first Blair Witch.
When the audience is left having to figure out HUGE gaps in the movie, it's not because the film is trying to be a think-piece. It's because it's a piece of crap. Leave big enough holes and everyone can feel smart by making up the explanations. The talk of the sequal only feeds the people who are starting to realize you can't really defend this movie. "Well, we only know part of the story now. You'll know it all after the second movie." Sorry. That's a little flat for me, and only reinforces that this movie was poorly made.
To be honest, though, I didn't have that bad of a time watching. You certainly feel cheated when it (finally) ends, but until then you don't know how many loose ends will be left unexplained.
Like with Blair Witch, though, it really doesn't pass the "waaaaaait a minute" test just after you walk out of the theater and start thinking about what you just saw.
Finally, I really don't give a crap how good or bad the foreign versions of this film were. I don't watch Japanese films. I'm not about to start watching Japanese films. I'm out of college, and no longer have to pretend to enjoy foreign or "indie" films of ANY kind, so I rarely do, save for Life is Beautiful, which kicked ass.
In a nutshell, the ride isn't bad, but when it's over you'll be left to guess a great deal of the story, and I don't consider that intellectual entertainment. I call it poor film-making. .