Cloverfield

This is a blog entry about Cloverfield. I saw this film on the opening Saturday, in a freezing cold cinema, with painful seats, because roadworks had made me and my friends too late to watch it at the good cinema. It took us all afternoon to get to the good cinema, in traffic, and back to where we started, to then go to a cinema which I hate. Luckily, this film is even more immersing and convincing is even more convincing if you are in pain, need the toilet and can not fell your fingertips.

The film - I have never seen anything like it. Literally, in all the films I have watched, I have never walked out of a cinema feeling like this film made me feel. The characters suck. Really, they are just silly. But that is important to the film. They need to be average, because then you believe that this could be happening to ordinary people. If they were extraordinary, then the film would not be as good as it is. The first quarter-hour needs to be boring as hell, because it sets up these people. This film understands that it works better if these people are normal. Sadly they soon go off to do their own thing... but still without becoming the super-people from most other monster films. Sadly, I would be hard-pressed to remember the names of almost any of the characters, even though this, I feel, may have been deliberate.

I must also say how superb the camera work is. It looks amateur, but provides just enough of the action, while keeping the just enough hidden. The amount of planning that must have gone into it is amazing. Mostly this is all done as panning shot, with the camera wandering around the scenes, held by one of the characters. A special note must go to the effects, which are also tremendous, they blend seamlessly as good effects should.

This film is short, and this is a good thing; it suits the style. However, it does take a good twenty-minutes to get going, and this can leave the ending feeling a bit abrupt.

There is another problem, and that is the balance between answers and questions. Personally, I believe that the monster should never be clearly seen. Yet, some people will be very annoyed at the way the monster is never explained. The dialog on the whole is rather dull, but it is not a talking film. The excellent cinematography creates emotions in the audience that are unlike any film I have ever seen before.

Go and see it - This is well worth the entrance fee, even if it is different to the blockbusters we are so often treated to by Hollywood.