It's a GIANT MONSTER ATTACKS movie - that's it, people

Rating: 7/10 (24 January 2008)

I think people are getting waaay too worked up over this (put down the Taurine and step away from the computer) - let's strip everything else away and focus on what CLOVERFIELD truly is - it's a giant monster attacks a city movie - that's it - from Godzilla to Reptillicus to Beast from 20,000 Fathoms - it has been done forever and the fact that these filmmakers tried to create a new way to do it while still remaining faithful to the genre itself - well - they should be commended. Many things in the movie work - first off, I really appreciated the FACT that they did NOT explain the monster - who cares - you want a military scientist rushed in and blab on about toxins in the water or pollution or microwaves or Lindsay Lohan being responsible for it - all the old movies have that and you don't need it - whatever caused it - it's there and it's ticked off and ready to destroy. (POSSIBLE SPOILERS)I loved how we saw glimpses of it - in my humble opinion - you did not need the big shots of it over Hud at the end - it was on camera too long and that's when the whole CGI of it looked lame to me. I tried to go with the whole premise of Hud filming as much as he did (otherwise you don't have a movie) but that was too much to swallow at times - like, hey dude - there are tiny scorpion/spider thingys trying to kill us - could you put down the *^&%$% camera and help me shut the door on them, please thank you very much? The way they taped over the previous Coney Island day was clever and I thought that was effective. There are some great scenes - the bridge being attacked - the initial "earthquake" - the news cameras showing glimpses of the creature moving through the avenues - the subway tunnels scene and the helicopter crash - in fact, if the movie had ended when the copter crashed - that would have been fine with me - I did like how it seemed all the main characters died. Good ending. As for this talk that something is possibly seen falling in the ocean at the end of the Coney Island tape - I thought I saw something too and I liked that touch very much. See, that is one thing I did enjoy - they didn't overexplain, they let you figure stuff or analyze stuff yourself. Use the old brainbox, what. Don't need to be spoonfed everything.