Surprisingly brilliant!

Rating: 8/10 (17 October 2010)

I understand why people may be sceptical of this film as it is shot entirely in hand held camera format. But i think it is this style of filmmaking that made this film special. "Cloverfield" is full of suspense, action, emotion and cool CGI effects. I think the hand held camera format was very unique to the film as it made the characters more authentic and real. When they cried, or laughed, or ran for their lives you could connect to them as the format made it feel like it was a documentation of a real life event and not fictionalised by the conventional shots used for an action film. It felt like watching a home movie of something that happened so you could connect with the characters. That's what i love about this film. You go on a journey with the characters as they try to save their friend back in the city. I loved the ending as well as it really fitted with the format of the film. You see rubble fall on the surviving characters and the screen to blacked out by the rubble but then the film then cuts to the footage of Rob and Beth's Coney Island date before the disaster saying they are having a great day, this is a great sense of irony. Unfortunely there were few uses of blasphemy and bad language which tainted the film for me. Overall a very different and interesting film.