Cloverfield Review

Fans of "The Blair Witch Project" will be happy to know the cameraman has found work again. As facetious as that sounds, the unique gimmick of Cloverfield is that the entire thing is filmed from the point of view of a handheld video camera that the characters are carrying around. This means that there are a LOT of scenes where the screen is jumping all over the place due to the characters running/falling/dodging/etc. It made my wife seasick, and I noticed another couple leave shortly after the film started for the same reason.

That being said, while the movie has a slow start, once the action begins it does not let up until the film ends. The premise, a giant monster movie told from the point of view of a group of normal people running for their lives, is a good one. This is the best movie monster since "The Host" (whatever you think of that movie, the monster effects are unarguable.)

Interestingly, my wife and I speculated beforehand on what the dangers of a giant monster actually are, at least in relation to people whose only desire is to flee it. After all, while it's gigantic and rampaging, it's not like it can really hide it's location, thus making it easy to avoid. While we realized that the scale of destruction of such a monster would make the navigation of even nearby areas difficult, and that "nearby" is a relative term for something that can step over Central Park, the menace would have to be directed specifically at the main characters in order to make a compelling movie. We were pleasantly suprised and pleased to see the very creative and thought-out form that extra menace took.

The movie is visually stunning, on those rare occasions the camera is held still. I would rate it higher if the director had realized that there is a reason that hand-held cameras are not used for box office movies. Also, the main caracters are normal people, which of course means stupid people. While their choices and fates are not necessarily cliched, there are several points where they can be called gratuitous. Someday they will make another science fiction movie that is satisfying in both story and effects, but this isn't it.

Go for the monster - try to tune out everything else.