Saw Cloverfield Sunday evening... Dang...
Alright, I'm not going to share any spoilers. I'm not that guy. Shell out the $$$ and go see it. Storyline is solid. Cinematography was incredible. Editing kept me on the edge of my seat. Acting, eh, it's not about the characters... Think "Blair Witch" meets "Godzilla".
Which gets me thinking. After seeing the Blair Witch in the summer of 1999, honestly, I didn't sleep for days. All I saw when I closed my eyes was what the witch didn't look like. In Blair Witch, you never saw what the witch looked like. Because I could not wrap my mind around the visual image of this witch, my college-educated brain equated that she was under my bed, ready to attack me when I fell asleep.
No one ever accused me of being intelligent.
Cloverfield, though, was painfully artistic on what you saw. You actually get to see a lot, but the images are very controlled. Half the movie I found myself thinking "no you idiot cameraguy, pan left, pan left!" The snippets, the fractions of a second, the "is that really what I thought I saw..." Ultimately, it's the tease that keeps you engaged... keeping you focused on finding the answers to your questions.
The beauty (albeit a dark beauty), however, in the midst of the destruction made me a little uncomfortable... deep down did I really enjoy watching the destruction of the city happen? Is it wrong to cheer for the monster?
By the end, I still have more questions than answers (and knowing Hollywood my questions will be answered someday)... until then, however THANK YOU JJ Abrams for restoring my faith in SCI FI.
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