It all started with a short trailer before the new Transformers move (win!) A young man at a party to celebrate him leaving somewhere, filmed on a handheld camera, suddenly the lights go out, there are bangs and crashes and people run outside to see what is happening. Just in time to hear a loud monsterlike moan a large explosion high up on a building and the head from the statue of liberty bounces down the street. Fade to black and the release date.
February saw the release of the movie Cloverfield. JJ Abrams was taking his Lostness into monster movies.
And, really, he didn't do that bad a job.
All the camera work as done on a hand held camera but don't let this put you off, it is no where near as sickness inducing as blair witch, and whilst the characters do not incur the kind of distate you felt toward the unfortunates in Blair Witch you, by no means, give a shit about them.
Unfortunately the film is still shrouded in mystery - nothing is explained. Views of the monster are few and not for very long, why the monster is there, where it came from, why it is attacking New York, what people are imploding... none of these are explained to the viewer and a lot of speculation has been taking place trying to discover said info. But, somehow Abrams has managed to create a brilliant film that will keep you on the edge of your seat (and sometimes out of it) without having to worry about whys and wherefores and without the audience being emotionally attached to the characters.
A good film whose only let down for me was the brief glimpses of the monster and the sometimes aggravating direction the camera was being aimed in, an example of which is when you can see the monster far left of the camera but the camera gets pointed the opposite direction (common sense as the character is running away, but never the less bloody annoying)
I would give it 4 pie out of 5
I liked it muchly. I like the dodgy handheld camerawork, it gave it a bit more of an original, grittier feel. I like the fact that there is no backstory to the monster; I hate the way everything nowadays is usually spoon fed to you like they expect all their audience to be imaginationless morons. Personally, I think it translates to the smaller screen quite well. Ok, you don't get the "OMFG HUEG!" moments, but on the other hand you are less likely to puke in your popcorn. I thought the characters were reasonably realistic (for this kind of film) and liked the fact that the story was about them running away from the monster, rather than the more formulaic story of Godzilla.