As I said earlier, Cloverfield's artistic choices could be great or could be its downfall. Cinematical has expounded on my points after Variety's Anne Thompson said the movie is running the "Blair Witch playbook."
The significant point they raise, which I agree with, is thus:
I know some people were genuinely spooked by The Blair Witch Project, believing it to be "real" found footage, but according to my admittedly unscientific investigations, for every person that was scared there were three people who were irritated by the horrible "improvised" performances and/or nauseated by the 'shaky cam' photography.
Variety also reveals some new details about Cloverfield, the most interesting being the fact that there is no musical score at all - just source music and "well-orchestrated ambient sound." Then director Matt Reeves says we'll get "intimate contact" with the monster by the end, which seems like it could be pretty creepy. Here's hoping they don't take the Michael Bay route and have the monster urinate on a guy. Maybe a Starbucks, though.
