This is the epitome of found footage film, with shots being either wildly blurred or of running feet, and a sound track of epic music and scared panting. The movie tells the story of a group of irritating young adults, with a kaiju attacking NYC reduced to a sort of backdrop for most of the film. It starts at a party, and stays with it... and stays with it... and stays with it... I got so bored of all the badly acted characters and their meaningless drama I started making pasta while I waited for something interesting to finally happen. And eventually it did, sort of.
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| Oh no, run away from that thing that we can't quite ever seem to see clearly! |
The movie drags out the reveal of the big bad for a ridiculously long time, showing parts of the monster now and then, and offering us a plague of the bugs from 'Starship Troopers', only smaller, as a starter. The main course never really arrives though, we see a few smokey shots of it from the air, then a nice shot of it's head, and then it's destruction is stolen from us as we are forced just to listen to the action as we watch the remaining humans hiding under a bridge and crying about something.
There was no character developement that I could discern, but if there was it wasn't helped by them all being so bland that I couldn't tell them apart. What I could see of the kaiju was nicely designed and animated, but that was about 2% of the total film.
It kind of felt like the mythology episodes of 'The X Files' were beginning to towards the end: you rarely find out anything, it all seems a little disconnected, and instead of increasing your interest (as it did in 'The X Files' to begin with) it's just mildly irritating. But rather than brilliant Mulder and Scully, it had Bob and Jim and the one that had that bit of metal sticking out of her.
Cloverfield: 12.5