Review of Cloverfield (2008) by Josh R — 04 Mar 2016
Thrilling & innovative entry into found footage genre that is entertaining but falls into the same flaws of the previous films. The cast is solid and appealing, particularly TJ Miller & Lizzy Caplan, who bring humor & humanity to their roles.
They act normal human beings, doing crazy and even stupid things in light of extraordinary situation. Behind the camera, Matt Reeves crafts a fun movie from Drew Goddard's script, and for the most part uses the found footage format to great effect.
The creature is hidden for the most part, letting the viewers imagination take hold, and you're never given a full explanation about what it is, adding the threat & mystery. Unfortunately, it falls into the same faults of other found footage films, mainly in that at some point you don't understand why they are still filming when the attack is happening.
It makes sense at first (a great image of everyone taking their cellphones out when the attack begins) but later it almost seems stupid. Reeves does mention in the commentary that one idea was the film would be composed of multiple film sources, which would make more sense & be an interesting evolution of the genre.
Overall, still a nice addition to the found footage & monster genre, and one of the better in recent years.
This review of Cloverfield (2008) was written by Josh R on 04 Mar 2016.
Cloverfield has generally received positive reviews.
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