Aw, yeah. The original is great. I loved it. It reminded me of an updated version of Tarkovsky's 'Stalker' when I saw it. The 2nd one has the material but it seems to be at odds with itself about the story it wants to tell. Is it a war movie..? Is it a monster movie..?
Whereas the first movie had these wonderful overtones and metaphor of the danger of introduced (alien) species being dangerous to the environment it's hard to come at that line of interest when the environment is a bombed out f**khole of Middle East war zone.
I enjoyed the 2nd movie, but the setting was an odd choice. I still don't fully understand why the giant Monsters roaming the open desert weren't just continually being targeted and obliterated by gunships. I guess there's a level of politics in there somewhere I missed.
It's no wonder Edwards went on to work on 'Godzilla' and 'Star Wars', though. His first movie was great.
-Windebieste.