Cloverfield

As a movie that apparently wants to achieve the same level of authenticity as The Blair Witch Project did through its documentary-style filmmaking method, Cloverfield isn't very successful. The story we get on the characters during the first 30 minutes in order to get us to care about them is as gimmicky and movie-conventional as it gets. This would maybe be okay if after those 30 minutes elapsed, it no longer focused on that, but the film insists on continuing to jam that storyline down our throats, all the way till the last few seconds of the film. This makes it feel like we're just watching a regular movie, rather than one that is supposed to exude a "real-life" feel.

Where The Blair Witch Project was relentlessly creepy, Cloverfield is unsuccessful at manufacturing any feeling of suspense. As most people are aware, one of the best decisions the makers of Blair Witch made was to NOT show us what it was that was haunting the protagonists. Cloverfield takes the opposite path, by giving us plenty of blatant glimpses at the "monster" (which, if you really are curious about it, there's nothing special about the specimen - nothing you haven't seen before). I totally saw coming everything that happened in the last couple of minutes, and it hardly had any impact on me, which is the opposite of what I can say about the horrific last few seconds of Blair Witch.

I did get motion sickness, but I don't know that that's necessarily a fair thing to reference to call Cloverfield a bad movie, because all it means is that at least the camera aspect of it is realistic. So, though I did feel dizzy at times, I can't really hold that against the movie, but its lack of believability in virtually all other aspects is definitely a detriment.

4/10