Quick:
I liked it! The only word to describe it is "visceral". I was completely sucked in by the movie. My heart was literally pounding during the opening scenes. The chaos and desperation is almost palpable at times. I don't think this movie will work as well on DVD alone at home however.

Long:

potentially movie-ruining spoilers ahead! you have been warned!





The Concept:
Very cool! When Jason had the camera in the beginning, I was really worried about the shakiness and the motion sickness. Thank goodness Hud knew what he was doing. Did you notice that he got better at keeping it steady as the party went on?
The scene where the Monster was on the left and the army was on the right, with our heroes cowering in between? Holy crap. That did it for me, proved that this wasn't just a lame Blair-Witch rehash.

The Monster:
Weird, almost incomprehensible, I'm glad they didn't try to make the monster too "cool". It was just ugly and strange. No real Lovecraftian feel to it like people were speculating (not enough tentacles for one thing). Not quite as big as I was expecting though.

The Bugs:
I was worried about these things, that it would bog the movie down and turn into yet another "run around in the dark from the fast monster" movie that tries too hard to be Alien. Pleasantly surprised that they confined them to a single scene. They added a nice bit of malice to the other parts of the movie where you knew those things were just on the other side of the wall.

The Ending:
If the ending was different, I would have loved the movie, unfortunately, it loses points for the unhappy ending. At least one of our heroes made it I suppose, but was disappointed that everyone else bit it (poor Hud!) I just didn't really get the point of that. Yes, the scene of the Big Bad leaping up and pulling down the chopper was cool (and made me jump), but couldn't Abrams find SOME way to get them out? I liked these characters, and after a solid hour of rooting for them from the edge of my seat with heart pounding, it was like my emotions switched abruptly to "depressed", and I left the theater a little sour.

The Characters:
I liked these people. I'm glad they went for normal looking unkown actors and not a pack of Hollywood Hearthrobs. Even the resident hot chick Beth looked like countless girls wandering the local shopping malls and bars. I really liked Hud (Heads Up Display, ha!) too, disappointed that he didn't make it.

Glitches:
Ok, did all the characters have Wolverine-esque mutant healing abilities? I mean, Marlena was walking around with a sucking shoulder wound (albeit only for a minute before she inexplicably exploded) Three of them fell out of the sky in a helicopter and got up to walk away (and Rob's legs seemed broken for 30 seconds), and Beth was freaking IMPALED on debris, and was able to walk down 50 flights of stairs!
Also, did the monster change size from one scene to the next? It could have just been that we kept seeing it from different angles though.
Wow, that camera has one hell of a battery on it!
Luckily I was so sucked in to the action that I didn't realize these issues until the end.

Your thoughts?