Cloverfield

Format-wise it can be considered refreshing,interesting definitely-telling the story from the viewpoint of a character's amateur footage Blair Witch style-it's very rarely dizzying,and never disruptive to the story-but it's nothing groundbreaking.It knows how to build suspense-in the first half only glimpses of the monster are seen while the city crumbles at an alarming rate.Within minutes,people are scrambling on the streets as army troops struggle to take down the monster-all the chaos brilliantly reduced by choosing a swift,minimalist approach-very little is seen,and even the scariest of sights (i.e: Statue of Liberty's head on the road,the Manhattan Bridge collapsing) are shown only briefly-before the characters get a move on,the speedy pace allows the film to retain a sense of urgency that keeps the horror consistently intense for the most part.

The thing is,it desperately wants to distinguish itself from Godzilla or any monster movie in the genre-by doing a lot of things that mostly pay off,but one mistake is trying to make it a human movie in the process.There's this cheesy little love story at the center that carries a lot of weight-but it's essentially wafer thin and the director insists on trying to make it something profound,all this confirmed with an inappropriately artsy final scene that leaves the story feeling bare and wispy.

It doesn't want to be big and boastful,but in trying too hard to do that-it opts instead a modestly-sized monster movie that's not at all about monsters but how these monsters cause carnage and pandemonium,and seemingly focused on how a couple in love and their similarly under-developed,horribly-acted friends can survive it,it slips too far and ends up a power-lacking underachiever with no clear goals.There are no real heroes or victims,no real monsters (sure they're there in physical form being all troublesome,but-right,I'm gonna risk sounding like an idiot here-there's no real tangible danger beyond that) and...no real anything.The movie sure does have its moments-but overall,it's the type of movie you remember one or two scenes of,or else completely forget about after half an hour.

For a more rounded opinion,links to AICN and RT.