From a technical standpoint, it is rather impressive how the film maintains the illusion that we are watching crude video camera footage. The visual effects seamlessly match the restless camera movement and the actors do a good job of reacting as everyday people would against the catastrophe often within long, unbroken takes (though I am sure the editors squeezed in a few breaks in between the herky-jerky swish-pans). I am still not sure, however, how the camera manages to endure what it does throughout or how Rob is able to get good cell phone reception to talk to Beth and others while walking through the subway tunnel all the way from lower Manhattan to 59th Street.
In the end though, Cloverfield successfully goes beyond being just a marketing ploy and works to provide some good scares. It is at the right spare length at 84 minutes and the filmmakers respect the classical Jaws tradition by preserving a full view of the creature until 70 minutes in. I only hope, however, that, for all of the film’s effective use of the handheld technique, the camera does not get any more erratic and disorienting than this.
Article comments
1 - Ron Orszag
The movie sucked my head was spining not worth
watching or spending money on. you can keek that art work send it to your enemy.