Hand-held interference spoils reasonable premise.

Rating: 1/10 (31 January 2008)

The Blair Witch Project has a lot to answer for. None of it good.
J.J. Abrams latest production has taken chunks of Godzilla and mixed them with Blair Witch's hand-held, reality TV style and web-buzz advertising and come up with a film equally annoying and devoid of interest.
There's a good premise here which seems to be looking at the action in Godzilla from the viewpoint of ordinary citizens not involved in the main action. As a result the main monster is almost kept to the status of featured extra. The fact that the creature looks so much like the CGI from Godzilla helps this impression along nicely as does our heroes being chased through the subway by small versions of the parent. The cast are pretty and the performances more than adequate, but Abby & I were both ready to leave by 20 minutes in and afterwards we heard not one good comment from the assembled reviewers. Several did leave.
What's the problem? It's that hand-held style. Leave aside that we're supposed to believe that a slacker who didn't want to use a camcorder he's never handled suddenly becomes an obsessive photo-journalist who continues to film even as being attacked or running from explosions. Forget that we're supposed to believe a domestic cam-coder can film constantly for about 8 hours on one battery and an SD Card (I want an SD card that can hold that much footage!). Ignore that the military don't take it from them as they run around filming their operations or that it's apparently indestructible. Forget all the stupid rubbish you're just meant to ignore and all the rip-offs from other films and being unable to care about most of the characters & their yuppie lives & concerns. The BIG problem is that hand-held style.
There are times you can't even look at the screen it's so awful. In a thriller/horror movie the only thing that should make the audience look away is fear not motion-sickness induced by aimlessly waving the camera around. Long sequences pointed at the floor as people run, more lying at an awkward angle as the action flits incomprehensibly through the static frame or others pointed away from the action leaving only sound for a clue as to what's happening.
The style is meant to make one feel part of the action. It's meant to give a sense of immediacy and truth and use the power of imagination to heighten the tension. What it does is get very irritating very quickly and soon becomes an insurmountable barrier to connecting with the story. Did no-one watching the rushes spot this? Or were they all too busy feeling self-satisfied & clever? Hell, they couldn't even be bothered coming up with a real title; they named it after the street the production offices were in. SHows the level of thought they actually put into this mess.
Total turkey. Avoid at all costs.