Great experience!

Rating: 10/10 (20 January 2008)

Lately I've been waiting for something different to crawl out of Hollywood for a change. Cloverfield did it. I have to admit that I went into this film rather skeptical, mostly because of its overblown media blitz. That's usually a sure sign of a stinker. It's much easier to make a good PR campaign than it is to make a good movie. This monster film has some notable similarities to The Blair Witch in its approach, but far surpasses that film in intensity and execution. What I liked about this movie is that it used all the usual Hollywood Blockbuster tricks such as CGI and explosive sound, but it remembered to be intense for the viewer and not just 90 minutes of eye candy. Too often these days films are so focused on the special effects that they seem to forget that people are trying to watch a story unfold instead of a series of CGI effects promos strung together like a bunch of Super Bowl commercials . The effects in Cloverfield take a back seat to the reactions of the characters in an apocalyptic scenario. The unknown actors were perfectly cast as over-privileged twenty-somethings, who've had the world handed to them, suddenly faced with a real survival situation. There is a large amount shaky-cam on screen, probably the most I've ever seen. I don't know how this film could have maintained the realism without it though. It was a necessary evil. Most Hollywood action films use the shaky-cam to make up for poor direction. Here it is forgivable because it adds to the atmosphere and realism. People don't typically run for their lives wearing steady cam rigs. Some have complained about the lack of an explanation for what happens in the plot. These monkeys have completely missed the point. Having your imagination fill in the many blanks is what makes this film work so well. For all of those people void of any imagination, I would suggest watching a turd like Gozlilla(1998). There you will have every little detail in the plot spoon fed to you like a 2nd grade geography class. Overall Cloverfield feels more like a terrifying nightmare than an actual movie. It was an incredibly engrossing and engaging experience for me from the opening shot to the final credits. When the last shot played out I realized that I forgot I was in a movie. I can't remember the last time that happened.