Shocked

Rating: 10/10 (17 January 2008)

I wasn't sure what to expect...which I think is most people's reaction when going in to Cloverfield. We got to go to the screening in Tempe on Wednesday night and saw it with a full crowd. Honestly, it was slow at the beginning. It takes a while to get used to the hand-held camera shots and really, the character development is a little obvious. It is nice that they took time to build a relationship between the main 4 characters in the movie, but really, I could have done without it.
Once the movie gets going (the part you see in the trailer when the monster attacks) it really kicks in to high gear. The hand-held camera allows the movie to cut out the boring stuff and only show the exciting parts without seeming disjointed. This is a revolutionary approach to monster movies and is probably something we will see lots of in the future.
Without going into the plot of the movie (and ruining it) I have to say that the acting was wonderful and the writing was well done. The editing is what made this movie great though. There are no cheesy scenes and there aren't any laughable moments (like the alien reveal in Signs) that ruin the movie. While parts of the dialog are funny, the plot never turns over-the-top. I enjoyed it immensely.