How can I describe this film? Others have had a hard time doing so, but I believe I've got it nailed.

You know that nightmare you get sometimes where you're always running from something? Something terrifying? There might be a respite here and there, but before you know it, and without warning, you're in imminent danger again and coming very close to being "killed". You know how it goes, how you can wake up in a start and need to take a moment to regain your senses?

That nightmare is this film - without the waking up part. J.J. Abrahms just produced this one.

The movie has tapped into something so primal it works at that level of fear and anxiety. A lot of that has to do with the hand-held camera approach, which while irritating in other movies, is absolutely indispensable in this film. It gives you an immediacy to the events that simply cannot be replicated with any standard film making technique.

Bottom line: If you're looking for a city-stomping monster film, this film wins the gold medal amongst all such movies to date. The movie also comes in at a brisk running time, so even when there are lulls, they don't last long. Heck, even the lulls often still contain the distant audio pounding of monsterous activity combined with the very loud efforts of the military to neutralize it.

Speaking of sound, this quality of it here aided in no small measure to the immersive qualities of the film. I'm talking Oscar caliber work here. It's not often I take special note of something like the sound, so when I do it's either because it's very, very good or the opposite.

I found the handycam approach to be not quite as bad as other movies employing a shakey cam techniques (like whole swaths of the Bourne movies, which I also enjoyed by the way). I still reccomend sitting towards the back of the theater to minimize sickness. I noticed a few people leave the screening who were seated further up. Those who remained for the whole screening, however, responded with serious applause, myself included.

The movie does exactly what it sets out to do: Scare the hell out of you. And it does it really, really well. A lot of films don't live up to the hype. Here is a pleasant (if you can call it that) exception to that rule.