I finally got to see this one last night (well...I finished it like 6 hours ago...so however the terminology for that works) and I..really fucking enjoyed what was there, but I'm dissappointed by what wasn't there, even though it doesn't detract from my enjoyment of what is there. Wait...Let me explain.
I'm one of those guys that has been following Cabin in the Woods for about a year and a half now. And as such I've had a lot of time to develop my own...shall we say, theories of what it would actually end up being. Although most of those were just blurry vague ideas, but when they released the poster image, thats when a lot of my ideas came into focus. Specifically I'm referring to this image...

Looking at this, my brain immediately went towards the much more mystery, puzzley type ideas floating around. Namely because well...the Cabin is a fucking rubicks cube. So out comes the trailer, which does nothing to dissuade my ideas of a very mind fucky, twisty, what the fuck type movie. Pair that, with the tagline "You think you know the story." and you get BDA walking into the theater thinking/hoping that this is going to be some sort of real intense mind bending take on the traditional cabin in the Woods/Evil Dead type thing (Er...well I would have had that walking into the theater, if I hadn't kinda had it spoiled that it wasn't going to be that) where it starts off as a very run of the mill literal take on that whole thing, and then it slowly unravels and falls apart as it progresses until we find the elevator and ride it down and discover the larger forces at work.
Enter BDA sitting in the theater. BAM, right fucking in my face, here's the ENTIRE larger forces at work shoved down your throat as the FIRST scene in the movie. (Which yes, you couple together a title sequence of nothing but human sacrifice images, a group of scientists, in some sort of high tech bunker, with the image of the elevator from the trailer and I basically have the rest of the larger picture plotted out, including the old gods element (Although that one might have been more me hoping...because I love the idea of the old gods in modern times...you notice I almost always use the plural "Gods" when talking...anyways)).
So...I'm confused...slightly disappointed, but hopeful. So I let the rest of the movie unfold and slowly allow myself to get re emersed into it, and by the time they hit the gas station I'm into it, I get what they're doing, and the rest of the movie goes off great, and I love every moment of it.
So yes, while I would have loved to have seen the movie that I thought CiTW was going to be, but I also love what it actually was...after I adjusted my mental settings in the theater.
Anyways on to specific stuff...
Fran Kranz...I LOVE this guy, he is easily on my list of actors I would sell very personal things to work with one day. He is among the...I'd say top 3 things, I love most about Dollhouse (Although this is coming from one of those apparently few humans alive that actually really likes Dollhouse.), and he was my favourite character in CiTW (well tied with Dana...it's the redhead, I'm useless against it
)
The ending... First off, I gotta give props to the audience I was in, when Sigourney appeared the entire audience was filled with laughs and woots, it was awesome. Secondly I love the ending just the way it plays out, through the entire thing I was sitting there going...please don't wimp out, please don't wimp out...holy shit....oh gods...they're actually doing it! Cut to black. BRAWWWM. I very nearly lost my shit.
The ending was an amazing refreshing change for me, it was really nice to see a movie that put itself into that position and went, yep, we're doin this. And not pull out with some sappy bullshit ending of "Oh, I guess I'm going to have to kill myself so the rest of- blah blah." No, fuck you guys, and fuck this, we're just gonna sit here, get high and let it burn.
It's one of the most human things I've ever seen a couple of characters do.
Although that may say more about me than anything else 
As you can probably tell, I obviously didn't have the issue of not connecting with the characters at the end...I was a little confused about where the hell Weaver came from though...does she just live down there or something? Bunk buddies with the old gods? And when she first appeared I coulda sworn it was going to be a thing where she was a manifestation of the old gods, and then the sacrifices and the gods were going to talk, and it was going to be really cool...but nope. Oh well.
Anyways...I have more to say, but long post is already long.
EDIT: I knew there was something I really wanted to talk about. I'm surprised none of you brought it up in the episode. But there is definitely a conversation-ish to be had about the visual effects. Specifically those ones that were so gods-horrifyingly-aweful, that I was thrown out of the movie for a minute before I remembered...oh right, they're doing a whole schlocky horror thing. Namely I'm thinking of the bike jump just before he hits the forcefield, the weird shuffly floaty cell system, and when the elevator doors open for the first time and the entire room literally explodes with blood.
I don't really have much to say aside from that, but did you guys notice it to or was it just me?
Last edited by BigDamnArtist (2012-04-28 11:50:37)
ZangrethorDigital.ca