Still Not Sure

Rating: 6/10 (25 April 2008)

Saw it last night on DVD and still not sure if I liked it or not.
The film follows the technique as used in Blair Witch Project. We see events unfold as captured through a hand-held camera. This works out very well for with no musical background and actors portraying characters as everyday, ordinary people, we're able to see a realistic documentation of an attack on New York by a monster as experienced by of a handful of people. There is a complete absence of macho men and women trying to be heroes; instead the people are real, expressing their fears panic and confusion just like you and I.
However, it's this slick type of production that also leads to disappointment because it severely limits the action and special effects. With no communications and utter chaos in the streets, we are as completely in the dark about what is happening as are the characters. And like Blair Witch Project, we're left without any ending. Since we know the tape has be confiscated by the Government and is the only know video record of what had occurred, we don't know if the monster was killed, how much of New York City itself has been destroyed and if this devastation has been expanded to other areas. We get only a little glimpse of what is actually unfolding by seeing a small portion of a television news cast and by what we're told by army personnel evacuating the city.
So, at best, the film is half monster movie and half study of how ordinary people react. Depending upon one's preference, it could be either a 10 or a 1. That's why I took a little above the middle ground in my rating. I found Cloverfield both entertaining and disappointing for it held my interest but denied me the fun of knowing what was going on, hearing the scientific explanations and following the attempts to destroy the monster - the ingredients necessary for good monster-movie making. I also realize it was the producers' intent to keep us in the dark in order to become fully engrossed in the more realistic terror experienced by the film's main characters. Will admit this different approach did work and after having some time to think about it I can also honestly say that Cloverfield has indeed started to grow on me despite my initial disappointment.