Cloverfield

After the ultimate in teaser trailers, Cloverfield arrives on our screens and despite all the trails of clues and red herrings that fans have tracked down across the internet, at one level there's not much more to it than there was in the trailer. This is basically Godzilla with a little bit of Aliens slipped in and inevitable 9/11 overtones.



What makes it different and more innovative (apart from the marketing campaign) is that rather than focussing on the heroes who fight the monster, this focusses on the ordinary guys and girls caught up in the middle. This combined with the lack of any recognisable stars means that there is a genuine doubt about who if anyone will make it through to the final reel. The other thing that Cloverfield catches on to is that most of the world's big events these days are captured not by professional new crews, but by amateurs on their mobile phones or video cameras. Hence the whole film is supposedly captured by the characters on a hand held camera. At one or two points this stretches credibility, but on the whole it works, actually adding to the tension and occasionally disorientating the viewer.

The monster itself is far more effective when caught in glimpses or heard off screen than when seen full on, but again, on the whole it works and there are some great scenes - like on the bridge or in the tunnels. The largely unknown cast also do a good job, even if the characters are some way off full of well developed and the main cameraman does get a bit irritating after a while.

Overall - 4/5 An old story well re-told in genuinely innovative ways which fairly races along through some great moments and real tension. It will doubtless spawn far too many imitations, so its worth checking out the original.