Cloverfield

It is a blast, but sometimes the excessive effort to push for authenticity at all costs can be bothersome. After all, there are simply moments when even the toughest journalist, reporter or cameraman wouldn’t be able hold the camera and would run to save their own life. So besides the fact that director, Matt Reeves, basically shouts to the world “look how realistically I filmed this” thanks to these scenes, the film does not suffer from any significant shortcomings. The characters behave quite believably, the chaos and confusion are excellently portrayed, and the sense of unpredictability is brilliant. Only the clichéd subplots of the story (except for the rampage of the monster and the rescue of the loved one – as later revealed) get a bit boring, but among all the explosions, shooting, and falling buildings, there is not much time for it anyway. (06/23/2008)

When original ideas were being distributed, Abrams and his gang were ahead of the game. How else can one explain that a story of a worn-out genre, filmed using a technique proven since the forests of Maryland, can transform into a perfect hit only with the help of a veil of mystery, attracting crowds who gladly devour it? An amazing experience that, with its suggestiveness, didn't let me properly sleep on the day of the screening. (02/21/2008)

Even though it wants to look The Blair Witch Project in terms of realism, there were many scenes that felt unnatural, for example, the attack by the little aliens, the infection of a loved one or the helicopter. I'm just not able to believe that at such pivotal moments, when my life (or that of my loved ones) is on the line, I would still be willing to view my surroundings through a camera screen, no way. Otherwise, a perfectly done job (the effects, the production design, the monster’s appearance) and a deliciously apocalyptic atmosphere with some shots that take on a sweetly surreal touch (e.g. a white horse pulling a carriage at the epicentre of the monster's rampage). The experience is multiplied many times over if you can watch the film in a darkened cinema on a big screen and with a top-notch sound system. (05/16/2008)

An exemplary demonstration of terror and mob psychosis. If there’s any film that the "amateur" POV documentary style suits and looks good on, it's Cloverfield. The *SPOILER ALERT* depiction of the destroyed town and the gradual culling of more and more of the main characters *END OF SPOILER* is truly brilliant. I was exceedingly pleased with how realistic it manages to feel (and at the same time such total bullshit, as a classicist would say). (10/24/2017)

Or How to effectively combine a classic monster movie with the modern tradition of found footage horror. It's no wonder that Reeves and Goddard are building such promising Hollywood careers thanks to this. Cloverfield is a superbly constructed recreation of a nightmare, focusing on the immediate circle of a group of hapless heroes. The story unfolds rhythmically in regularly changing locations, cleverly subverting the audience's expectations just by cramming into the foreground more genre tropes than the viewer would expect from a film with a giant monster devastating New York. I will probably need a second screening for maximum satisfaction, when the originality and narrative certainty will surely affect me even more strongly. EDIT: The second screening induced maximum satisfaction. 90% (08/07/2018)