Don't get me wrong though, there are lots of good things going for this movie. For starters, the special effects were just top-notch. Everything blended in beautifully with the rest of the scene. I can imagine that being a really hard thing to accomplish with all the camera shaking going on.

Which brings me to my major debate about the movie. The shaky-cam style of the movie makes you really get immersed in the film. It really works for this story. Without it, we would just walkout of the theater mid-way since it would have just been another "disaster-strikes-New York" movie, complete with love story to boot.

The story is basic and would have not succeeded had it not been for the way it was filmed. Cliches run rampant throughout this tale but your point of view keeps things mysterious enough to be interesting. The movie doesn't reveal everything about the attack, even at the conclusion, which is a flaw in other stories like this. That restricted knowledge is what gives the movie an edge as we humans tend to fear things that we do not understand, and therefore makes the creature a lot more menacing than other past movie monsters.

At times the camera gets too shaky, or better yet too realistic I should say. It gets very hard to follow what's being shown on the screen. I'm sure it was shot this way on purpose to convey a more chaotic atmosphere but it really hurts to try to keep your eyes focused. Sometimes the shots seem too coincidental since a real person wouldn't turn around to film some of the situations of the movie. I understand that decision though; if I were with a camera being attacked by a giant creature, no one would ever be able to enjoy my footage as it would just be shots of me hauling ass screaming like a girl... for two hours. Not very entertaining.

I'll leave it at this: see the movie. Just don't expect it to be the most influential film event ever as this movie's marketing department wants you to believe. It more than holds it's own in it's very crowded genre and I can definitely see a cult following starting up for this movie.