Reaction: Cloverfield

What to say that others before haven't said?

Perhaps I just haven't seen many monster films lately, all I could think walking out of the theatre was: "I have never wanted to slap some sense into a group of characters so bad." One of the essential elements to engage me in a film is to present a cast of characters interesting enough that holding them on the edge of doom should create tension. This bunch pushed the limits of my ability to suspend disbelief.

Much of the film is driven by what I felt amounted to an unlikely event: our hero is the one guy in all of New York city who missed the television footage of how terrifying the attacking organism is. And he is in the middle of an electronics store when this happens! And when he foolishly goes running in search of his love, his friends actually follow along.
In fact, the only character I felt any sort of empathy for was the one who meets a most grusome end - this one really was a victim of circumstance who mutters, "I wasn't even supposed to be here." And we've all been in that situation at one time or another.

But like I said, maybe I'm just not into monster movies. Other than that, the film does what it sets out to do. It's presented as a piece of footage recovered from a disaster area. The footage is raw and unedited, interspersed with older footage not overwritten by the new recording. And somehow, the camcorder always manages to capture just what we needed to see to drive the events along. And the whole time you sort of wonder, who will bite the dust next (because we know since the "tape" was "recovered," the camera operator probably didn't survive). But it's the ride that matters (and it's a pretty good ride most of the while.

On the design and technical side of things: I loved the monster - it was certainly something new and impossible to describe. And as for the shaky-cam look, well, 74 minutes was certainly enough for me (and more than enough for some of my companions that night at the theatre). It's funny, in fact, that actually, the camera shakes even before the attack begins. Have none of these people really never used a camcorder before?