It's a campy mutant monster movie, you already know what to expect going in. The movie's production values are high enough to make the end product slick and entertaining, but the movie (wisely) never tries to elevate itself above its ancestry. The main characters are fleshed out just enough to make you hope they see through it to the end, and the bugs are just well rendered enough to allow your brain to suspend disbelief just enough to enjoy seeing the big CGI spiders doing battle with the humans. The plot, of course, practically writes itself once things are set in motion, and you can play monster movie bingo picking out all of the elements ripped from the films that paved the road for this one. My only complaint was that you didn't get to see more elaborate and varied deaths for the eight legged heavies. It was surpisingly satisfying to see one of them meet their gooey demise (a scene where they unwittingly attack a tanker truck is great fun), and it would have been more interesting to see them squished in more imaginative ways (cinematic ground that Gremlins gleefully explored).
So, not that it's really saying much, but this is definitely one of the better done campy giant marauding bug movies.
So, not that it's really saying much, but this is definitely one of the better done campy giant marauding bug movies.