Continuing with my theme of found footage films I remember seeing the preview for this film as well. I remember being intrigued enough to watch this movie. Unlike some of the other found footage films I actually enjoyed this one despite its flaws.
At the beginning of this movie we see a young guy named Rob Hawkins recording his time with a beautiful young woman named Beth McIntyre (played by Odette Annable). They are apparently in to each other and he is simply recording just because. The video footage abruptly changes to approx a month later.
In the "present day" of the footage we meet Lily Ford (played by Jessica Lucas) talking with her boyfriend Jason Hawkins (played by Mike Vogel) about a going away party that they are throwing for Jason's brother Rob. She wants Jason to record farewell wishes from the party guests. Jason doesn't want to so he dumps the responsibility of recording farewell wishes on to his friend Hudson "Hud" Platt (played by T.J. Miller). Hud, in turn, is excited by the prospect of using the camera as an excuse to talk to his crush Marlena Diamond (played by Lizzy Caplan).
So the party starts and the only incident seems to be the frostiness between Rob and Beth especially since Beth arrives to the party with a date. After Hud observes Rob and Beth argue and tells everyone at the party what happened between the two, Hud and Jason go to talk to Rob in private about what is going on between him and Beth. As they are talking there seems to be an earthquake causing everyone in the party to strangely migrate to the roof of the Rob's apartment building. They flee back into the building after fiery debris starts raining down on them.
After walking downstairs, Hud, Jason, Rob, Lily, and Marlena try to find out what happened by standing in the streets with the rest of the party goers. After the Statue of Liberty's head comes crashing into the street near them, the group decides to follow the instructions of the police and army to evacuate the city via the Brooklyn Bridge.
As they are crossing the bridge Jason gets a call from Beth pleading for help. Jason gets separated from the group because he doesn't notice that the other four have fallen behind after Hud notices Jason stop and calls out to the two women to stop. The bridge is attacked by the monster and Jason is killed. So Rob determines to go back to Manhattan to rescue Beth and the others decide to go with him to help.
So begins the "harrowing" journey of the group to rescue Beth including dodging the actual monster, getting attacked by smaller monsters, facing the army, avoiding the army, and just generally getting into scrapes that they shouldn't have survived for as long as they did.
Like I said earlier, I enjoyed this film. I like it partly because of its flaws. It is a very easy movie to pick apart for various reasons.
The characters aren't particularly likeable for the most part except for Marlena and Lily in that order. One of the biggest flaws is the question of why Hud kept carrying the camera. Other than plot device and what was thought of as a clever way of telling this story, it is just silly that he keeps carrying the camera considering that they are supposed to be running for their lives.
There's not a lot of apparent chemistry between Rob and Beth to warrant Rob going after her. I mean he seems butt hurt that she has moved on with someone else but that doesn't come off as out of love for her. When they do go after Beth, they consistently do foolish things like not gathering or keeping weapons that they come across, not gathering supplies like water or food as they come across them, not changing into more suitable clothes as they come across them, etc.
Worth watching if you are curious. Can by dizzying if you are sensitive to found footage/shaky cam footage.
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