This is what every disaster / monster movie should be.

They’ve really cottoned onto something here: the idea that a monster movie could have a greater impact when taken away from the grander scale and made more personal, more relevant to the individual. And nothing says this better than a first person point of view.

That’s the gimmick – a (moderately) big-budget movie shot to look as if it was made on a home video camera. Authenticity. And just for that sort of bravery I would have been prepared to give them a big thumbs up. Yet this isn’t just a good idea, it’s a good idea done incredibly, incredibly well.

The device of a recovered video tape is used superbly well throughout. A mostly taped-over piece of footage reveals a previous fling between two of the characters at the beginning of the film, and returns briefly at poignant moments throughout. What quickly becomes apparent is that Cloverfield really wants you to care about its characters. And, through the lens of over-enthusiastic video maker, Hud, we get a sometimes secretly-filmed insight into the lives and relationships of our characters as a going-away party is held for one of their number.

This is important: they really spend time involving you in these people’s world, there’s no “Right, now that’s done – so where’s the monster?” here. I found that wonderful, because by the time the skyscraper-sized proverbial shit hit the fan, I had virtually forgot that I was supposed to be watching a monster movie, and was nearly as shocked as the characters.

From this point on as they race back and forth across New York, the camera work does get decidedly shaky, and there’s no getting round it: if you have a big problem with this sort of thing then Cloverfield could be a difficult film for you to watch. But that said, they have showed some sense and moderation, achieving a balance between authenticity and watchability that The Blair Witch Project never managed.

If I have one criticism (and it’s a small one which I’m sure many people may not share) it’s that the actual quality of the picture is too good. While the camera work says “handicam”, the picture says “expensive high-def”. Evidently this has been done so that their expensive CGI effects aren’t entirely wasted, but nonetheless I did find myself wishing that the picture was just that bit grainy and a little darker. Okay, so we wouldn’t see the big monster in such detail when that moment finally comes, but I think we would be twice as terrified and feel that bit more like we are actually there and that this crazy thing is actually happening.

This aside, Cloverfield is by far the best movie of its kind. A rounded experience that crucially leaves you little wiser about what is going on at the end than you were at the start. If a giant monster came to destroy the world, this is how it would feel.

10/10