Cloverfield

This film pissed me off so bad I was unable to blog for days after seeing it. J.J. Abrams, the man producing a film directed by his old friend Matt Reeves.....a film about yet another monster kicking the shit out of poor old New York again. Needless to say my expectation were high. Too high perhaps. I could rant for hours about the problems I had with this film but as the "critics" now see fit to hail this as a "masterpiece" I will limit my complaints and let you judge for yourself if you dare. First on my list is the camera work. When THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT pulled this stunt with the hand held video cam years back it was new and it was made by novice filmsters, they had an excuse and even then the shakiness was kept to a minimum. Here in CLOVERFIELD it is constant and the effects is such that it should be against the law. Most viewers left the cinema either nauseous or with a severe headache and it was so bad I actually LEFT the theatre three times to have a smoke, oh wait.......maybe it was because the characters sucked and I wanted them ALL to die. Then there is the monster....or monsters that is because we have an unexplained assortment of them....but it's the "big" one I have issue with. It's a good one and actually more science based than any I've seen...problem is we see it from an aerial shot and I swear it looks like me in winter after a three day bender trying to crawl from the bed to the can to puke! Scary stuff indeed but with the bedget they had you think something a little more jaw-dropping would have been in order. All of this aside, for me it comes back to camera work. The folks involved are old pros and they know better...for them to foist this off on the big screen is simply criminal and I can't get past this point.....and what is it with the poor Statue of Liberty always getting the crap kicked out of it?