inventive? on one level yes, but ultimately no!

Rating: 5/10 (20 January 2008)

This was a very fast moving movie. That's a good thing, because it's really a headache to watch. It can make you physically ill. So much time is wasted spinning the camera around to remind us it's supposed to be an amateur video. OK J.J., we get it already!It ends up "being" less than a professional effort, with too much time spent indulging the plot device and not enough time spent on the story. In that way, it's very much like what is worst about the TV series "Lost" when it wallows in its character past sub-plots. "Cloverfield" is not really scary at all, and not too gross. It's not enough of everything - except being visually annoying enough for anyone. I guess I was disappointed that the writers tried too hard to make this a teenage movie. Young people are indulged in so many ways in our society, but we are not being true to the art of cinema when we get so hung up on form over substance. I don't believe that humanity has run out of new ideas, but this movie would argue the opposite- that all has already been said and all we can hope to do is sing the same song in a new key.