Movie Night...
Went to see Cloverfield yesterday, and enjoyed it very much. I was a little worried that I should have taken Bonine beforehand, as I had heard the hand-held camcorder was used throughout, but it wasn't done to the point of inducing headache or nausea. I thought it had the effect of making the film more immediate and exciting, and the details harder to make out once the action started - and the jittery camera made the critter SFX way more effective.
The first bit - 10 minutes or so - before the action starts is a bit slow, but critical for setting up the characters and their situation. After the attack begins, it's hard to look away! The device of using an amateur (character) as the videographer, and filming over another tape of a few weeks earlier in two of the characters' lives, worked brilliantly... you get little snippets of that past sort of randomly worked in. I didn't much connect with most of the characters, but I liked the videographer (Hud), who's kind of clueless, and not very brave, but who has a sense of history and takes his role very seriously once the action starts.
Anyway, I thought the film was the freshest take on monster movies in decades, and recommend it if classic giant monster movies are your idea of a Good Thing.
The first bit - 10 minutes or so - before the action starts is a bit slow, but critical for setting up the characters and their situation. After the attack begins, it's hard to look away! The device of using an amateur (character) as the videographer, and filming over another tape of a few weeks earlier in two of the characters' lives, worked brilliantly... you get little snippets of that past sort of randomly worked in. I didn't much connect with most of the characters, but I liked the videographer (Hud), who's kind of clueless, and not very brave, but who has a sense of history and takes his role very seriously once the action starts.
Anyway, I thought the film was the freshest take on monster movies in decades, and recommend it if classic giant monster movies are your idea of a Good Thing.