Reviewsarama

This is a “modern” movie. I say that because the marketing for this movie was very different and took advantage of the current technology. Just the simple fact that a teaser trailer was shown when nobody had ever heard of this movie is an accomplishment. Not only that, but the title wasn’t even shown.

But let’s forget about the brilliant marketing and talk about the movie itself. The whole movie is seen through a portable camera, operated by one of the characters. So this is literally their point of view of the events in this story.

The big event is that a big monster is running around Manhattan. We don’t even anything else, because the characters don’t know anything else. So we just follow them trying to save their friend and trying to get out of there.

I thought this movie worked overall. The shock of seeing a monster through a cheap camera felt more real than the usual movie shot of the big monster. That realism is key to this movie. It helps with appreciating the characters, the story and the atmosphere of this movie. Even the dialogue felt real.

There are problems that come with the premise though. The main one for me is that the guy behind the camera rarely puts it down to help his friends, which I found ridiculous. He’s not a journalist, so I don’t buy that he really wanted to document this.

Sometimes the people on camera are talking to the operator, but they look into the camera, which also doesn’t make sense. And towards the end, they should have just run away leaving the camera behind. At that point there really wasn’t any excuse to keep the camera, other than to give us viewers an end.

Still, I enjoyed watching this movie, though at times I almost had a headache while the camera was shaking.

Rating: 3 Stars