The only way I could see this movie to work out is if it had been made as an amusing comedy, not to be taken as seriously. At times it also seems like this movie was more going with approach but at others it was just being plain lame and silly, when the movie was trying to more like a typical- and serious genre attempt.
They should had known better really. I mean, when was the first or last time you ever saw a good enough genre movie like this one. It's basically being one of those old fashioned B-horrors in which giant creatures turn against humans, with as an only difference that the creatures in this movie are being replaced by large trucks and some other smaller and far more insignificant machinery.
The story really doesn't ever make that much sense and it just gets used as a poor excuse to have some big trucks driving around, scaring and killing some people. This might actually still sound kind of cool to some people but believe me, this movie just isn't so at all. And the main problem of this movie perhaps isn't being the fact that it just has a weak story, in which nothing gets explained believable enough but more with the fact that the movie is such an incredible ineffective one.
There is just never really any sense of danger within this movie. It never seems likely or scary that they can't escape these trucks. I mean, these trucks are incredibly large (American style), which also means that they aren't exactly very nimble and you can literally hear and see them coming from miles away. why not bring more machinery to live in this movie, who have a go at our 'heroes'. The things that come to live within this movie seem all very random and it seems even more random that they turn against humans and try to kill them in every way possible. Why not exploit your own concept to the fullest. Just seems to me that most people who were involved had no idea what to do with this movie, including its cast members as well.
The deaths are also being the worst. First of all, the movie is using some horrendous slow-motion at times, which actually only helps to make it more obvious how lame and cheap this movie is looking. And secondly, most killings aren't even shown. Lots of dead people are lying around and it's just highly improbably that all of them got killed because some type of machinery went berserk. All of the 'dangers' shown in this movie seem to be something you can easily run away from, or at times even take one step to the side to avoid getting killed or even hurt, so how is it possible that so many people got killed all of the sudden, at almost exactly the same time. But thirdly, it's also definitely true that some characters within this movie really do their best to get killed. They literally walk into a truck themselves, or they try to challenge some of the machines in an extremely dumb way.
And yes, large blame for all of this can go to Stephen King, who beside writing the story, also attempted to have a go at directing a movie all by himself this time. It was the first and as of yet also the only time he ever did this, which should tell you enough already. It's a really sloppy made and directed movie, which isn't just due to its silly and simplistic story. The story flow is really lacking at times and so is any of the character development, or the directing of the actors. I still have no idea why the movie decided on following these persons, considering that the 'catostrofy' was happening to everybody on Earth, at the same time. Surely there could had been far more interesting places with far more interesting characters for this movie to take place.
A typical genre-flick, that got poorly done and is one that you can easily do without.
4/10
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