Possibly the closest original Monster movie that's actually good!!!

Rating: 8/10 (25 January 2008)

Before I get into being the critic i have to say this, when walking into this movie you have to remember 1 thing; that this movie is being done by hand held camera so unless you haven't seen a movie that was dealt in this type of aspect (Aka. Blair witch) then you might find this difficult to watch but it depends on the viewer. Now i will get into the criticism.
I have to give it to J.J. Abrams for amping the people up with the secret type of trailers and websites that gives prelude to this anticipated movie and finally when going to see this movie i was expecting the hand held shaky camera feel so i wasn't surprised at the outcome cause it just adds more depth as well as realism to the ride. The story....well...there's not much of a story; technically, its more so a documentation that was left via SD card during the aftermath of what happened and picked up by the military to be viewed and that's where the fun begins. What makes this movie even more realistic is the fact that they don't know much about the monster than we do when watching it; so when they know as much we do too (in a sense of the word); thus adding a scary reality to the threat this movie provides and gives that much originality to the focus of the movie.
The actors are a close to real as they can get and even though there were some that would be confused by the time jumping during the camera scenes when you put 2 and 2 together you get to understand what is going on between the characters of Beth and Rob and their somewhat shaky relationship before, during, and after the horrific events so in a way one would or could make it out to be a love story in the middle of an apocalyptic event; But this movie didn't need a soundtrack cause it added just as much tension without it, you feel for these characters as well as dread the monsters that seem to come out of the woodwork during the battle scenes and that's where the awesome special effects comes in. I can't compare this movie to Blair witch cause as much as there is an identical feel there is a significant difference, Blair witch is more on a psychological aspect. Whereas for Cloverfield this is drowned in awesome special effect that seems to mesh very well with the real hand-camera the action picks up strong in certain parts of the movie giving it a deeper tone as well as fear for the people portrayed in this movie.
This is a love or hate movie, some will love the direction that this movie puts on the audience as well as how it was well written and directed as well as the not-knowing until they know aspect which i felt was greatly on point cause even the military didn't know what they were facing so this movie won't hold your hand in anything cause our guess is as good as theirs. Some will hate this movie cause of that same approach i've mention...you see some people want to know ahead of time what is going to happen or who they are going to face but when you have something like that...you don't get that sense of dread and surprise but most want that; also the camera isn't the best and these guys run...and run, and run so you have to deal with that from time to time if not all the time...i'm sure there are other, "Love, hate" reasons but i think i said too much.
I give this movie an 8 simply cause its even though it has lack of story it holds a deeper, original, realistic feel for danger as well as a typical love story which gets you into their world. Also, the shear not knowing until the characters know made this movie just as real as if this was caught by surprise as the next person and you get more hints as they know which. Along with damn good special effects this movie did a good job making people anticipate and it didn't let me down which some movies would do sometimes when faced with that type of hype.
Plus, I thought the woman playing lily was HOT!!