Wow!
I never got dizzy or light-headed, but some of the footage did make my tilt my head to try and figure out what was going on. I never had a desire to see “Blair Witch Project”, but, aside from the handheld camera style, these are two very different movies. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I thought it was awesome.
As far as giant monster movies go, the good ones are few and far between. The reason is probably that it doesn’t take a whole lot of capital or talent to film a guy in a rubber suit stomping on a miniature of Tokyo. Even the initial trailers for “Cloverfield” made it obvious that this movie had a budget, a good story, some incredible special effects, and at least one really cool monster.
The movie starts out with a couple filming each other in their New York apartment. Because the entire movie is presented as footage found in Central Park after some disaster, the footage quickly jumps around as the camera operators turn on and off the camera to record different things. Soon enough the camera is passed to a friend who films the going away party for the guy we meet in the opening scenes.
It doesn’t take long for ‘something’ to happen that makes everyone rush to get out of the city. The cast starts dropping like flies as the city is torn apart. The tension begins to mount as the camera picks up increasingly disturbing images of the monster that is loose in Manhattan.
Let’s take a minute to talk about the monster. I’m not going to say anything to ruin the movie or spoil the surprise, but that was one cool monster. This is no dude in a rubber suit. The “Cloverfield” monster would be much more at home as a Lovecraftian addition to “The Mist” than the monster of the week fighting Godzilla. And speaking of that matchup: the “Cloverfield” monster would win.
On my personal scale of:
“Avoid it at all costs”
“Good for a laugh”
“Some people will like it”
“Rent it”
“See it in the theater”, and
“Buy it”
I would give it a “See it in the theater.”