Above average monster movie

Rating: 7/10 (16 May 2017)

Matt Reeves' Cloverfield remains popular for all the wrong reasons. Many know it as "the monster movie that causes motion sickness", and as many don't give the film a chance because of this, they are missing out on a chillingly effective monster movie.
The concept of a found footage monster movie is quite ambitious. How can the sheer scale of a monster movie be properly showcased without the use of cinematic camera-work? In many ways, Cloverfield is brilliant, becoming on of the most intense monster movies I've ever seen, without the use of these grandiose cinematics and overblown action. Nearly all of the film remains on ground level, which adds copious amounts of tension and works at making the viewer feel utterly helpless. The scenes in which the monster towers almost directly over the camera are heart-pounding as we can't help but marvel at the technical scope this movie achieves. And while many complain that the monster remains hidden for the majority of the film, that only makes these surprise appearances all the more terrifying. The special effects are nothing short of spectacular, despite what the direction gimmick may lead some to believe.
Cloverfield features a cast of characters that are surprisingly likable, even if they are walking clichés and remain underdeveloped by the credits, but in a film like this, I would be lying if I said it wasn't fitting.
The only real issues I had with Cloverfield was the incompetent story and, at times, the camera-work. The story of Cloverfield is reasonably simple, as it should be, but even as our characters set themselves a definitive goal, we keep getting pulled into tiring side stories that don't seem to have much affect on the film whatsoever. The sequence in which our characters are rescuing a friend from an almost horizontal skyscraper, drags on and isn't particularly engaging. While it does serve as a breather from the rest of the film's intensity, it does effect the pacing of the film as a whole. While I do believe that the infamously shaky camera-work benefits the film more than hinder it, it does at times go too far. The scenes become almost incoherently shaky at times, not really adding much to the viewer's experience other than a migraine.
While the young adult drama and jittery camera work suggests a quality no less than amateurish, the masterful use of scale and sparing utilization of the nerve-racking creature sightings makes Cloverfield anything but.