Could have been much better

Rating: 6/10 (21 January 2008)

Cloverfield has a good story line, likable characters and plenty of excitement. Unfortunately, the filming is constantly shaky which is a constant reminder that you are watching a movie and therefore you are never really drawn into the movie. In that sense, the idea of making the movie more personal and terrifying by shooting it in this manner simply does not work. As high tech as the camera was, containing infra-red, flood light, lifetime battery and media that withstands a nuclear blast, why not put a gyroscope in it so that the filming could be better than amateurish. I thought the 84 minute length would be too short, but actually it is too long, the filming gets old very quickly. The party scene was great for character development but seemed to drag out too long thanks again to the filming. It's unfortunate that a film with so much potential falls short because it resorted to gimmickery. Too bad it was not done by Spielberg, it would have been much better.