Review of Cloverfield (2008) by Jacob M — 18 Aug 2014

A found footage film is one of the most popular and newest ways of making film that saves budget and makes it a bit easier on the director. Having a shaky cam and at times haveing it spinning around is a good thing in this type of film.

Although it may have some things to make it easier for filmakers, there are also some requirements you need to make it work. Like you have to stick to it for the whole movie. Another is that you can't break the illusion that what is going on is happening as you watch it.

Lastly, you have to have a compelling story to build around and have a somewhat good reason for everything to be filmed. Some great found footage movies are Chronicle, Paranormal Activity, and The Blair Witch Project.

This movie right here fits in perfectly with those ones as one of the best. It sticks completely to it's found footage origin and gives you a cool and terrifying story to keep you interested so it's not like you just watching a stupid home video your friends made (that's Project X).

It not only kept my attention and stayed interesting throughout the whole thing, it began a new era of film. I feel that this really started the found footage era. The Blair Witch Project did it, but didn't start anything, but after this one more and more have come out.

Well this movie had a really intense and compelling storyline that was backed up by its state of the art special effects and it really held up (the monster could have looked better though). I thought it was a very sucessful expierement that will be remembered for a long time, maybe not as a classic, but as a beginning.

Really enjoyed it and I highly recommend anyone who is a fan of found footage to see it, I know I am.