It's been three days since seeing Cloverfield and here are my thoughts.
The shaky camera thing is both a blessing and a curse. It drives a sense of authenticity AND nausea. I (a first person shooter gamer) generally do alright with fast camera moves, but even I found my stomach churning during some portions of the film. My wife had to look away for minutes at a time to keep her popcorn in her stomach. That said, I found the constantly moving camera really did help to up the sense of realism. The ever moving camera pays dividends when Hud (the camera holder) is surprised by a stream of military troops marching up the street with all their weapons blazing. His point of view drifts from trying to take in the soldiers, to focusing on his friends and back again. His mounting sense of confusions and fear is palpable.
While I can understand how it might effect those from NY and Washington D.C., the use of 9/11 imagery in the film doesn't bother me at all. I think as a country we are still working out what we took in on that fateful day. Well made movies that visually reference 9/11 aren't so much exploiting our memories as providing another opportunity for us to reflect on the horror from the more comfortable distance of a Hollywood movie.
My strongest critique of the film centers on the relative lack of inspired character development and the less than stellar script. Imagine this film with a linguistic punch of authenticity that was able to match the visuals and you would of had a nearly perfect film. As it stands it is still a remarkable night at the movies, which is more than can be said for the likes of The Bucket List.
