2008 science fiction horror movieRating: 17/20
Plot: A monster thing attacks New York City and rips off the Statue of Liberty's head. People panic. Some kids try their best to find one of their friends and survive the ordeal.
Completely stunned. It's part Alien, part Blair Witch, part Godzilla but still retains originality. It's got fervor, an emotional yank, and edge-of-the-seat thrills all thrust at ya with the use of a handheld camera and special effects that (for the most part) don't look like special effects. I was impressed with the acting. More than the dialogue at least since I thought there was actually too much of that. This movie breaks my 2008 record for sitting motionless in the chair afterwards, and for whatever reason, I almost cried. A disorientingly intense experience.
Me:
really? 17?????? hmmm. now i might have to see this, tho the mind-numbing quantity of movies you've been consuming could have...well, numbed yr mind.
ReplyDeleteThe mind has been substantially numbed. I'll be the first to admit that.
ReplyDeleteI didn't really expect to like this movie. Some people I play poker with really liked it (same people I watched 'Eyes Wide Shut' with) but it sounded gimmicky to me. I couldn't shake this one afterwards though. It was like how I felt after Heath Ledger died.
This may be the classic example of something that grabs you the first time you see it but falls apart with subsequent viewings. I don't know. I definitely think you should grab it though. It's only 84 minutes long!
Its not a 17....its not even close.
ReplyDeleteIt has some good moments, but there is so much need to suspend belief, even in the context of a giant monster invading New York.
Why cant any of the girls CHANGE THEIR FREAKING FOUR INCH STILETTO HEELS? How the hell could the monster sneak up on the guy that is carrying the camera?
Actually the need to follow this trough the eyes of only one camera is the major weakness of this movie. Instead of trying to create characters we are supposed to follow, and have the inane plot points of trying to find the chick, the better movie would be to show the monster going through New York through the use of many different found cameras and films. I can see it now..grainy black and white, jumbled with crisp color, near professional stuff, mixed again with cell phone movies or other videos found. Could have had a lot more deaths, and a lot more suspense, because you never would know when someone is about to be eaten...or conversely the film just runs out and we have to switch to a different view of the same event.
Instead we get the incredibly annoying love interest story that kept dragging me out of the picture. I WANTED these spoiled pampered jerks to die.
I give it a 12...thats about right.
It's one of those movies I'll see again and possibly change my mind about...no less than a 15 though.
ReplyDeleteYour comments remind me of what you wrote about me with 'Kung Fu Panda,' how my preconceived notions about the genre got in the way of me enjoying the movie. Same thing here with you and monster movies? Do we really need lots of monster killin' to make a good movie? I don't think so. I like that the characters were given a little depth in a natural way. It didn't seem artificial. And the one camera helped to pull me into the happenings a lot more than multiple cameras, etc. would have. I liked that this didn't look like a movie I'd seen before. Too much Hollywood monster movie cliche would have screwed this up and made it as blase as your typical monster movie. I like that the makers of this one took a chance to do something new (at least in the genre of monster movies...I know this is Blair Witchy and all that) and I liked the results. And I thought it had plenty of suspense.