OK, first off, this is a found-footage film. Don't like them? Then don't watch the film. A lot of criticism here simply because people just don't like/don't seem to understand the genre. You wouldn't criticise a rock song just because you don't like or understand rock music, would you? Same thing here, basically. It's been edited to look like it's unedited, "found footage". That's the genre. Yes, the camera-work is shaky. Yes, it is meant to look amateurish. That's the point. You're meant to think it wasn't made by a professional film crew but is just unedited footage shot by the characters in the film (who aren't meant to be a professional film crew) as the events occurred. It would be a bit weird if they'd just happened to shoot a perfectly orchestrated, steadily-filmed, scene-by-scene mainstream Hollywood movie completely by accident while they are under threat, when that wasn't even their intention in the first place.
Secondly, the comparisons to Blair Witch. Well, it's a found-footage film set in a forest, so of course it's going to have similarities. It's set in a forest because the original Rendlesham UFO Incident took place in Rendlesham Forest...where the film is actually shot. Should it have been filmed a few miles further down the road at the pizza place, perhaps!? Maybe you'd have preferred that. And if it hadn't been a found-footage film, would you have hated it because it was a normal horror film set in a forest, just like the many hundreds of horror films already set in or around forests!? Too "derivative" still? Do you just have a problem with forests? Or horror films? Perhaps just steer clear of watching films based around either of those two "problem areas" then, in future.
This is an excellent film that builds on the suspense from the first frame to the last. It switches effortlessly between the fear of the situation these people find themselves in to conveying the sense of wonder and awe (even joy) at the spectacle before them and all the unsolved mysteries that are out there in the world. It does this while staying true to the concept its based on...which does mean you'll be in for a bumpy ride (though the camera- work does settle down further into the film). If you miss it, you'll be missing out. Or alternatively, just go and sit in your room and listen to a type of music you hate, really loudly, then complain about it on the internet for hours.
Secondly, the comparisons to Blair Witch. Well, it's a found-footage film set in a forest, so of course it's going to have similarities. It's set in a forest because the original Rendlesham UFO Incident took place in Rendlesham Forest...where the film is actually shot. Should it have been filmed a few miles further down the road at the pizza place, perhaps!? Maybe you'd have preferred that. And if it hadn't been a found-footage film, would you have hated it because it was a normal horror film set in a forest, just like the many hundreds of horror films already set in or around forests!? Too "derivative" still? Do you just have a problem with forests? Or horror films? Perhaps just steer clear of watching films based around either of those two "problem areas" then, in future.
This is an excellent film that builds on the suspense from the first frame to the last. It switches effortlessly between the fear of the situation these people find themselves in to conveying the sense of wonder and awe (even joy) at the spectacle before them and all the unsolved mysteries that are out there in the world. It does this while staying true to the concept its based on...which does mean you'll be in for a bumpy ride (though the camera- work does settle down further into the film). If you miss it, you'll be missing out. Or alternatively, just go and sit in your room and listen to a type of music you hate, really loudly, then complain about it on the internet for hours.