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.