Cloverfield...

Just been to see Cloverfield, the new film by J.J. Abrams, (who created Lost). Here are a few thoughts (before which I should say that I quite liked the film).

Ok, the film concept is the totally cool, original idea of being a video tape, shot of a series of events (which get increasingly more mysterious) which is discovered some time after the events happen. It's hard to express just how cool and original an idea this is... in fact it is almost as cool and original as when it was used (in exactly the same way) in The Blair Witch Project.

Ok, in principle, it is still a good idea, and it is a novel way to make a suspense/action movie (think Blair Witch meets Godzilla, in Manhattan). At times it does add quite a lot to the film, especially the beginning, which is a surprise leaving party for one of the main characters. The first half hour or so covers the party, lots of closeups and personal drama of the soon to be main characters.

The problem with this, like Blair Witch, is that the camera man seems to be suffering from late stage Parkinson's disease or thinks he's on a ship. (Interestingly the cinema here actually has a warning about potential motion sickness which some viewers may experience during the film). This gets kind of annoying at times, it was cute and clever the first time the camera guy shoots a piece and focuses entirely on two women's chests, but this gets irritating pretty quickly.

Having said that, the 'normal' part does managed to work up a bit of empathy for some of the characters (except the cameraman who is just dumb dumb dumb). Then things start getting strange, earthquakes, monsters, people running and screaming. This is pretty well done except I spend the last half hour wondering why the hell the (dumb) cameraman didn't drop the damn camera, especially while he's scrambling across a roof top and fighting for his life (it's because he's dumb, really dumb).

Still, it was a pretty well made film, not a classic, but good fun.