The monster gets the star

Rating: 1/10 (19 January 2008)

Let me begin by saying this film had some seriously tremendous potential. The premise is fantastic and very interesting: a strange monster invades NYC and the entire footage is captured by a group of young people. This idea is rock solid. Unfortunately, it's the execution of the premise and the poor choices made by the director that make this film, once promising, now literally vomit inducing.
For starters, shooting the entire film on hand-held camera is an INCREDIBLE mistake. Yes, there are instances where this approach works well, but for the majority of the film where the characters are running or moving quickly, it just doesn't work. Anytime there's some kind of action, all we see is nothing but blur.
Films are supposed to entertain. What is entertaining about blurs and streaks of blurs in motion on the big screen? Nothing. It's vomit inducing. It's okay for characters to run, so why didn't the crew switch to a production camera during those moments where the cast is scurrying away? We needed to see them running away, but from a third person perspective, not a first person (hand held camera) perspective. It's not like the crew couldn't afford it - especially since they did a spectacular job on all the other aspects of the film (the CGI monster). Failure of the director to recognize this exemplifies his poor integrity skills.
Any kind of sequel to this film is going to be lame. I was glad the characters died or were attacked. Because when they were, that awful camera was stationary and it didn't hurt to look at the screen.
Lots of people on here claim that Cloverfield shakes less than the Blair Witch Project. Utter nonsense. As you get into the middle and end of the film, the shaking is SO bad that the film becomes one for your ears and not your eyes. Roughly 20 people (young and old) left the theater and did not return. The man sitting behind me vomited.
Another reason why I dislike this film is because there's nothing invested in the story. We want answers to what is this monster, where did it come from, what does it want and how do we get rid of it? These questions are NEVER answered.
Again, another instance in which the director is to blame for failure to do his job properly. The shaky camera and unfinished script RUINED the film.
At the end of the day, after all is said and done, this film might make gobs of money. But at what price? At the price of the audience HATING the director as well as the studio? Is all that money worth it to be blacklisted by those you seek to entertain?
Do yourself a favor, skip this film. In fact, if you want, you can grab your own hand-held camera, record yourself shaking it vigorously while you and your friends scream in the background about a monster. Then put it in your DVD player and watch it. If you do, you'll pretty much get the gist of watching Cloverfield, but I'd bet yours is even better than Cloverfield. Why? Because you are an amateur whereas these guys (are supposed to be) professionals. But to me, the quality of work is the same.
And it cost you practically nothing.