Cloverfield

At first glance of the films synopsis Cloverfield looks like a movie to get excited over. J.J. Abrams name attached to anything is enough to get me excited, throw in a monster movie and I was there, well almost there. It was I began to hear comparisons to the Blair Witch Project that the enthusiasm from my mind took a backseat to the uneasiness of my stomach. When I walked out of the Blair Witch back in 1999 it wasn’t from fear but from motion sickness. With that said the movie premise is interesting and this personal digital camera angle stuff works in this setting. Playing off the many famous home video footage we saw during 911 made the film feel so much more real. For example the scene were they jump for cover inside of a store before a gust of debris and smoke fill the streets reminded me exactly one particular scene repeated in the media over and over again during that time. The most exciting point for me in the film is when we see the military rushing in for the first time to confront the beast. Watching those men rush in guns drawn on that shaky camera was exciting.
My biggest complaint with the film isn’t with the annoying camera shots but more so with the annoying characters, more specifically the camera guy who would rather see himself and friends die then put down the freaking camera. He’s whiny, a jerk and dumb nothing that you want in a main character. I kept hoping for his character to die early in the film so that I wouldn’t have to hear his voice any longer.
I think this film is worth paying money to see in the theatres but overall I left the theatre disappointed from feeling like I didn’t see enough monster, sick from the camera angles and annoyed from the main characters. 4 out of 5 for me, and I should note that this is coming from a fan of monster movies.