Kind of disappointing seeing how much I enjoyed John Carpenter's remake. This to me was more of a monster film in line with FRANKENSTEIN (and they hardly showed the monster at that). It was more military and politics.
I'm disappointed that you were disappointed, but in reading your reasons I understand - you want to see a monster movie, not a sci-fi story.
In my view, the buildup of the storyline and the buildup of the suspense is MUCH MORE important than seeing what the creature looks like. I posted today (in another thread) that the first half-hour of "Them" (a 1954 sci-fi flick about giant mutant ants) is as good a buildup of suspense as I've ever seen in ANY movie. When you finally see the ants you realize they're cheesy looking props even by 1954 standards, but thats not important to the story.
I don't remember if it was you or Vercetti who loved "Gojira" (or more commonly known here as "Godzilla"), another great 1954 sci-fi flick, but similarly, there's a great buildup of suspense and the monster itself is kind of dumpy looking (certainly by today's standards), but that doesn't detract from the movie.
