Questionable story , Awful Photography!

Rating: 2/10 (14 April 2008)

Story ends unresolved... Where did it come from, was it defeated? The photography was atrocious, I know it's supposed to be from the point of view of one of the characters, but you can't see most of what's happening. The shaky camera with inadequate light doesn't contribute to the story or feel thereof, it just serves to annoy. Also, where there is color, there isn't much of it. It's a shame, because, if you could see most of the film, that might offset the unresolved storyline, which I could handle. Godzilla (1998), which was put out by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin got average reviews and was a similar story of a monster attacking New York City. It was well filmed and the scenes were exciting and easy to see. The color was great and the story showed the origin of the monster, and followed a smooth storyline to the resolution. The special effects were awesome. In my opinion, Cloverfield fell short in every area. The actors were wasted as they were portraying their characters well, but you couldn't see them most of the time. In many scenes , the camera was pointed at the floor and all you saw was the ground blurring by. It may be the intent of the movie, but what a difference it would have made to have filmed it in a similar style to Godzilla. I sure hope film makers get over this shaky camera and poor lighting and color kick they are on. There are some good movies out there, Minority Report, War of the Worlds to mention a couple. If only they weren't distorted by lighting and color manipulation and shaky camera work to set a mood.... an annoying one.