|
I finally saw this on a DVD ripped download.
I think it's one of the best films I've seen in years and, contrary to what people are saying about watching it on a big screen, I think it's probably more suited to a small screen. On my MacBook it seemed just about right, and I didn't get any motion sickness, on my girlfriend's large widescreen TV it was a bit harder to watch (and made her really sick). I think it worked brilliantly on a small screen as that's what you'd watch something like that on.
I didn't find the film scary at all, but I do think it successfully portrayed the level of panic that you'd feel in that situation - I was utterly gripped for the duration.
Hud was ok I thought, he was just a normal, slightly thick, guy in a horrible, horrible situation, trying to help his friends. So what if he sometimes said stupid things, are you telling me that everything that would come out of your mouth in a situation like that would be pure gold? I know I'd be gibbering rubbish.
The best thing though were the effects, and the way that huge set pieces were reduced to fragments glimpsed through the viewfinder of the camera - other films would have spent a good 3 or 4 minutes on the Empire State Building collapsing, but Cloverfield showed us just enough for us to think 'Holy fuck, is that the Empire State?' before people were running from the smoke and debris. Likewise the Statue of Liberty head - no lingering shots of it, just a crowd of people (realistically) taking photos with their phones.
Referring visually to the footage of September 11th was genius, and 100% intentional I think, and it reminded me of how I'd felt watching the footage on the TV 7 years ago, which just added to the reality of the whole thing and further suspended my disbelief.
Finally, not explaining anything was GENIUS IMO. In the real world we have to try and piece together what was going on from small fragments, so the film further sucked us in.
|