Not the mess I thought it would be

Rating: 7/10 (12 February 2008)

By that I mean I didn't puke from motion sickness, although I did get a bit of a headache during one or two scenes. The hand held camera can be disorientating but it adds a gripping immediacy to the terrifying events and totally immerses you in the thick of it. That is of course if you can suspend disbelief long enough to accept that the camera man manages to keep filming while monsters, missiles and fiery debris rain down around him like lottery balls in a shuffling machine.
We are plonked into an apartment to share in the humorous, occasionally annoying banter of a few likable Manhattan yuppies who rudely have their clambake interrupted by a giant squid/crab/turtle like creature who takes considerable offense to tall buildings and men in green uniforms firing rockets into his face. The explosions, the dust clouds, the wounded civilians, all captured on what looks like grainy news footage create a distinctly 9/11 feel and it's an interesting memory or emotion to play on.
We are told absolutely nothing about...well, anything. There is no explanation as to why the monster is there at all, but the threat, the danger is emphatically realized. Clueless as the characters in the movie, we are left to fathom things at the rate at which they happen, and this mystery makes for a largely unpredictable and stimulating experience.
The acting is credible and I appreciate the director's decision not to use big name actors. This for the most part really does feel like a documentation that was found in a ruin, if not for a few contrived incidences, most notably at the end where we finally get to view the monster in all it's grumpy faced, tentacle lashing glory. The SFX are terrific but some moments have a distinct CGI shininess to them. Dialoge contains a lot of improv as you would expect, it's supposed to be real life, and it goes around in circles a bit. The phrase "OH MY GOD!!!" is repeated frequently, yet one would expect less of a PG-13 response to a giant mutant vapourising Central Park! There is also humour scripted in the least likely of places, which is appreciated yet detracts from the effect of a real life documentation.
All in all Cloverfield was a fresh, exciting, slightly nauseating way to watch New York get pulverized all over again.