Cloverfield

Loved it like I loved Blair Witch Project, precisely because of the way the story was told. Story unfold through a handheld video camera that starts off with somebody taping his friends' going away party, and the perspective changes when Manhattan starts being taken apart, piece by piece.

Interestingly enough, this method of storytelling does allow some leeway into some minor diversions in the movie, such as in the subway tunnel, when our "heroes" (for lack of a better term) come face to face with miniature monsters, who, if they don't tear you to shreds right away, inject you with a poison that makes you explode about twenty minutes later (which reduces our heroes from four to three).

In a regularly told movie, they would have to account for that . . . answer the questions, how did the little monsters get here? Are they offspring of the big monster that ripped of Lady Liberty's head and sent it flying through the streets of Greenwich Village? (Were they in the Village? I can't remember . . . not being much of a New Yorker, I can't differentiate all the neighbourhoods)

Regardless, this type of handheld camera is both effective and allows the makers the leeway simply to show the action without having to clarify with a lot of rationalizations.

Makes it very effective. Truth be told, if this were told in a standard format, it would have been just another monster movie.

I mentioned Blair Witch before, and this movie also begs another comparison, to a monster movie that is spectacular on all fronts . . . The Host. (Korean movie, I've blogged it before - check it out . . . I'm sure the makers of this movie studied that one in and out.)

VG