A return of the monster flick.

Rating: 7/10 (24 June 2010)

"IT'S A LION! IT'S HUGE!"
OK, that's not a real quote from the movie. But that meme (and its endless derivations) are a testament to how excellent the viral campaign for Cloverfield was. The initial trailer for the movie was one of the best I've ever seen, and it had me and countless others scouring the trailer and the Internet for any clue to what this movie was going to be about.
Once it finally arrived, I have to say that it mostly lived up to all the hype and anticipation. It's basically a monster movie about a group of people who get caught in Manhattan as a huge, powerful creature lays waste to the city. They have to venture across the island to find and rescue a friend of theirs, before attempting to make their escape. It goes without saying that they encounter a lot of danger along the way, including some smaller creatures that seem to fall from the larger beast.
The entire movie is filmed from the viewpoint of a camcorder (which apparently caused motion sickness for some viewers), and as a result it's about as realistic as this kind of a movie can be. (I'd also trek across a war zone to get to someone who looks like Odette Yustman, so that's pretty realistic, as well.)
The special effects were solid, there's a lot of genuine tension, and all the actors and actresses were authentic enough to pull of the realism that the movie was shooting for (the guy playing Hud was incredibly annoying, though). The monster is seen only in half- glimpses for the majority of the movie (smart), destroyed NY looks amazing, and it's not hard to suspend your sense of disbelief and get drawn into what's happening to the characters. It does strain credibility that this particular group of people encounters the monster so many times, but that's a small niggle. As is the fact that it doesn't hold up quote as well after multiple viewings. If you don't like this movie, this genre just doesn't appeal to you. I just hope you're not susceptible to motion sickness.