Underrated movie

Rating: 8/10 (9 September 2018)

Cloverfield, while not perfect, is a clever film. It starts with a boring and seemingly overlong party. So when finally something is happening, you will sit straight. Another strong point is that the horror happens too fast for the people of NewYork. For the cinemaviewers too. That, and the uncontrolled camera movements, works very well. What I kept in memory mostly is Lizzy Caplan sitting in that subway tunnel. Huge eyes. I never saw an actress express SHOCK so convincingly.
Complaints all around that the 'villain' is hardly in view, or not clear enough. But that is how it would be had it been a real disaster. At such moments no one is able to keep a camera still and be concerned with focus. 9/11 is sort of an example: the shots in the streets very close to the towers and inside the lobbies; shaky, chaotic, moments of overexposure from daylight and lowering of the recorder so only the ground is filmed. And these filmers were profs with professional camera's.
Cloverfield works far better than the rather aimless Blair Witch Project. I found the ending a bit too abrupt, and realized only later that the 1h 25m film really SPEEDS by.