****(SPOILERS AHEAD)****

You know, you bring up an excellent point about the creature's size. At the beginning the thing was ridiculously huge but seemed to shrink as time went on (except for when it somehow got high enough to take out the helicopter). At the very end it did seem like it was only 30 ft. tall or so.

Speaking of the helicopter I was also kinda bugged that they'd take the risk of getting so damned close to the thing (it's a big island after all, why fly right next to the monster?). The entire ending seemed very forced all in all. Things like that or Hud dying b/c the monster somehow snuck up on him were real "what the hell?" moments.

I also agree with the stupid decisions of the characters. I mean I know they needed a reason to have them stay on the island but good god that was a dumb one.

Come to think of it, cutting out all the character build-up stuff, the movie itself was terribly short. It makes it kind of hard to believe the government would go for the "hammer down" option at that juncture.

****END SPOILERS****

Even with those complaints, I still have to say that I was very pleased with this movie. It surpassed almost all of my expectations and they were set pretty high. I'm honestly not sure if I will buy the DVD though because I don't know how good the movie will be when you take out the element of surprise.