I’ve never been one to be completely swayed into seeing or not seeing a movie based solely on reviews, especially from jaded movie critics, but I definitely should have listened when it came to Cloverfield. The concept was promising– an entire movie filmed via amateur commercial video camera, complete with shaky images and shots that were in-and-out of focus, possibly causing some viewers to go into epileptic shock. It certainly made for interesting, anti-formulaic rendering of this monster-invades-New York offering.
But the concept isn’t original; the Blair Witch Project paved the way on seeing the world from a digicam’s view lens. This, however, was also Cloverfield’s Achilles heel, as we were privy only to the scenes captured by the reluctant cameraman (in this case, one of the movie’s characters). Were there scenes that could’ve had a stronger impact had they been filmed differently? Maybe. Where this movie succeeded is the suspenseful nature in which some of the scenes were depicted. There were many a time when I actually found myself having unknowingly gripped the armrests of my seat.
If you were expecting the movie to live up to the hype the ambiguous trailers had caused, you may be disappointed, what with the oft vacuous dialogue and clichéish characterization that it also came with. But, if you want to see it for the pure pleasure of watching yet something else wreak havoc on the Big Apple while her hapless inhabitants try to make sense of it all, then go see the film. You may want to hold off on the popcorn, however; you’ll find that there’s already plenty of corn in the movie.
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