I really liked how the Elder Things were in a way, a metaphor for us. I mean, the average movie going person will go see a horror movie once or twice a year. We go see them in an almost ritualistic fashion, always in the month of October and we're going to see young people die. I even liked how one of the technicians said "we can't go off script" (or something along those lines) indicating that the Elder Things, like us, want to watch the same thing again and again without change, I mean that's how we got 7 Saw films in as many years.

Oh man what an ending!

1. What was the actual situation above ground? Is it basically supposed to be our world and hardly anyone is aware of all this human sacrifice going on all over the place all the time? Or are most people aware of the sacrifices, but there's a certain percentage of the population that's bred to sacrificed and raised in a controlled, fictitious world where they are kept unaware?

2. It seemed like they were implying that someone had deliberately sabotaged the operation from the inside but this was never elaborated upon. Was it actually sabotaged? If so, by whom? I would have liked some explanation.

In regards to question one... I never even really gave it a thought when watching the movie and just chalked it up a big global conspiracy with really nice benefits to entice silence among the workers. As to the human sacrifices, I think they just worked with what fit the bill as best they could. There was a line towards the end where The Director was explaining to Dana her role as "the virgin" and she just gives Sigourney Weaver a look of "you really think I'm a virgin?" and Sigourney Weaver responds with "we work with what we have.

As to the second question, there does seem to be a bit of a plothole there, perhaps it was cut from the movie to be added to the Director's Cut DVD when it comes out? Joss Whedon is a decent enough writer to avoid a pretty obvious plothole like that so I'm going to assume it's studio meddling.

See, I feel like the idea of that big of a conspiracy going on for thousands of years with most people unaware of it really strains the limits of plausibility, even in such a far-from-realistic movie. I mean there was a brief shot of a failed sacrifice in Argentina at one point which looked like it involved the military fighting some massive, King Kong -esque monster. How could stuff like that be going on all the time without the general populace being aware?

On the subject of Joss Whedon's writing: the more I think about it, the more I realize that one of the things I didn't like about the movie was how the characters were written. Joss Whedon is usually great with characterization, but all the characters in the movie were so flat that it made me not as invested in the story as I would like to have been. I certainly didn't care about any of the kids in cabin, and didn't think I was supposed to. Steve Hadley was the only character with any depth so I kind of figured he'd play some key role (like maybe he was behind the sabotage) but then he was bumped off abruptly (which was hilarious though). In the end, I was left with two protagonists who I didn't care about squaring off against a completely undeveloped antagonist who was only introduced in the last ten minutes of the movie. Sure, it was fun to see Sigourney Weaver pop up unexpectedly, but I wish they had done more with her.