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Short form: I liked it, but can see why many wouldn't.
The first thing you need to understand, and that I think was made fairly clear by the ad campaign, is that this is a first person POV movie. They cheat a couple times by letting the POV characters see something on TV or overhear it on someone's radio, but for the most part it's all unsteadicam first person. The view from the squishy's perspective in a kaiju movie.
The second thing you need to understand is that this is NOT the POV of a survivor. And THAT is the core point that will piss people off. Not just that the protagonists die (although one escapes in proper slasher movie fashion), but that we don't get to see the end of the story. The movie ends when the protagonists die. We can assume, from the infostamps at the beginning of the movie, that the monster didn't destroy all humanity (yet) and that there was an opportunity to search Manhattan pretty carefully. Without going into detailed spoilers, suffice to say that the camera used to film the stuff we see would not have been found quickly or easily. But that's all inference, the audience is denied the usual kaiju payoff of seeing the monster killed or driven off.
In many ways, this is more of a slasher flick than a kaiju movie. The slowly whittled down cast, the up close and personal deaths at the mandibles of the mini-kaiju (reminiscent of the Legion critters in the first half of Gamera vs. Legion, but less "strange alien with inscrutible purposes" and more "Ridley Scott Alien who wants to lay eggs in you"). The way that the one survivor of the core group is a more or less virtuous woman. The goofball comic relief guy who survives way too long and dies in the most spectacular way of anyone in the group (POV shot of Clover biting down on him). The Acting Appropriately Stupid (at one point, to get into the 39th floor of a partially collapsed building, they climb up the building it's leaning on and go across the roof after the goofball suggests it and then says he was kidding). The brainy chick who you think might survive but expires messily. That sort of thing.
In fact, as a slasher movie, it has all the payoff you need. The monsters in those rarely get conclusively stopped, they just run out of victims and one poor traumatized girl gets away. Jason as a kaiju.
Still, leaving aside the one matter of the climax, it delivers. There's sufficient shots of the monsters, including a few really clear ones (when goofball's about to get chomped, he finally figures out how to steady the damn camera and we get a few seconds of Clover pondering whether it's worth trying to eat him). The human drama makes sense, and you care just enough about them to not simply want to see the monster stomp stuff. The sense of menace is maintained even when no monster is present. And there's some cool disaster movie stunts like the building-crossing. And heck, there's even a sort of sad payoff to the core romantic storyline (your basic "admission of true love just before the hammer comes down" thing).
Now, I was watching for a few things I read about in advance, but I didn't see 'em. I didn't see the supposed splashdown in the final scene that was supposed to be Clover's arrival (fragments of an old outing were still on the memory card, mixed in with the new as if it were analog tape). And while I listened carefully to the hissing whispering at the very end of the credits, it didn't sound like anything in particular, just static.
In closing, and without spoilering, I'd say I liked the experiment, and think it's worth watching. I don't want to see anyone repeat it, though. It's an idea that's good for one movie, it was executed well in that one movie, and it would just be annoying to do it again. Oh, and if the DVD doesn't have a "monster scenes only" cut as an extra, I'm sure several fan cuts will pop up nearly instantly. :)
The first thing you need to understand, and that I think was made fairly clear by the ad campaign, is that this is a first person POV movie. They cheat a couple times by letting the POV characters see something on TV or overhear it on someone's radio, but for the most part it's all unsteadicam first person. The view from the squishy's perspective in a kaiju movie.
The second thing you need to understand is that this is NOT the POV of a survivor. And THAT is the core point that will piss people off. Not just that the protagonists die (although one escapes in proper slasher movie fashion), but that we don't get to see the end of the story. The movie ends when the protagonists die. We can assume, from the infostamps at the beginning of the movie, that the monster didn't destroy all humanity (yet) and that there was an opportunity to search Manhattan pretty carefully. Without going into detailed spoilers, suffice to say that the camera used to film the stuff we see would not have been found quickly or easily. But that's all inference, the audience is denied the usual kaiju payoff of seeing the monster killed or driven off.
In many ways, this is more of a slasher flick than a kaiju movie. The slowly whittled down cast, the up close and personal deaths at the mandibles of the mini-kaiju (reminiscent of the Legion critters in the first half of Gamera vs. Legion, but less "strange alien with inscrutible purposes" and more "Ridley Scott Alien who wants to lay eggs in you"). The way that the one survivor of the core group is a more or less virtuous woman. The goofball comic relief guy who survives way too long and dies in the most spectacular way of anyone in the group (POV shot of Clover biting down on him). The Acting Appropriately Stupid (at one point, to get into the 39th floor of a partially collapsed building, they climb up the building it's leaning on and go across the roof after the goofball suggests it and then says he was kidding). The brainy chick who you think might survive but expires messily. That sort of thing.
In fact, as a slasher movie, it has all the payoff you need. The monsters in those rarely get conclusively stopped, they just run out of victims and one poor traumatized girl gets away. Jason as a kaiju.
Still, leaving aside the one matter of the climax, it delivers. There's sufficient shots of the monsters, including a few really clear ones (when goofball's about to get chomped, he finally figures out how to steady the damn camera and we get a few seconds of Clover pondering whether it's worth trying to eat him). The human drama makes sense, and you care just enough about them to not simply want to see the monster stomp stuff. The sense of menace is maintained even when no monster is present. And there's some cool disaster movie stunts like the building-crossing. And heck, there's even a sort of sad payoff to the core romantic storyline (your basic "admission of true love just before the hammer comes down" thing).
Now, I was watching for a few things I read about in advance, but I didn't see 'em. I didn't see the supposed splashdown in the final scene that was supposed to be Clover's arrival (fragments of an old outing were still on the memory card, mixed in with the new as if it were analog tape). And while I listened carefully to the hissing whispering at the very end of the credits, it didn't sound like anything in particular, just static.
In closing, and without spoilering, I'd say I liked the experiment, and think it's worth watching. I don't want to see anyone repeat it, though. It's an idea that's good for one movie, it was executed well in that one movie, and it would just be annoying to do it again. Oh, and if the DVD doesn't have a "monster scenes only" cut as an extra, I'm sure several fan cuts will pop up nearly instantly. :)
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