Review of Cloverfield

Cloverfield (2008)
5/10
Sci-fi Blairwich project
25 January 2008
A big monster attacks New York, and some guy runs around with a camcorder and films what is going on from the perspective of average Joe. No heroes, no plot, no point. Just confusion until the recording ends at some random point in the event, leaving no answers to what really happened.

The movie got high ratings because its new and unique presentation, you have a sensation of being there like an insignificant individual who is tossed around as a victim to events that are not clearly understood at any point in the movie. Its basically like looking at some war footage from a civilian who is randomly running around in a war zone, trying to survive. This gives the old fashioned Godzilla kind of movie an amount of realism that is unusual and fresh.

But, its just not enough to make the movie a rewarding experience. Its a freak show of a movie, doing something a bit unusual, sure, but its like eating a cactus just to do something new when having dinner. Yes, different, but maybe its a reason no one did it before...

To build a foundation of realism, the first part of the movie is only showing the camcorder guy walking around in some regular party, talking to random people. To give you the feeling that this is real. And surely enough, it could have been recorded at any boring party you have ever been to. And, this is just where the movie fails to entertain. Its like watching your relatives endless vacation photos.

When things finally do happen, at the point where you are about to leave the theater out of boredom, the camera is mostly waving around like crazy while the recorder is running around in panic, making you want to throw up from motion sickness.

Although I can appreciate them trying to do something different, to make you feel like you are really there to experience this, it just ends up like a blur of noise and messy clips.

The whole point of the movie is obviously to recreate the kind of confusion and panic an individual would experience during such an unlikely attack, however, this fact also leaves you with some kind of unsatisfied taste in your mouth as watching the movie will not put your curiosity at rest. In fact, you can just watch the trailer, its the whole movie right there, you wont get anything more from seeing the whole thing. Just more of the same, but you can just watch the trailer in a loop until you get tired of it, and there you go. Saved you some money...

Rent a video game instead, like Half Life 2 Orange box, it is a better way to experience monsters attacking as if you were there yourself...
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