A movie that needed to be made

Rating: 8/10 (3 August 2013)

Cloverfield is a movie that needed to be made for a variety of reasons. With the recent onslaught of summer blockbusters, with each getting bigger in scale than the next, it's easy to forget about what implications such destruction would have in the real world. Some movies address this issue by either working around it, which is what Pacific Rim did by clearly showing cities being evacuated prior to the action, or actually using it as a conflict that must be overcome in addition to beating the antagonist. Part of the objective in the climax of The Avengers was to contain the alien invasion as well as to get citizens off the streets.
Other movies just completely gloss over this issue like the Man of Steel. Fanboys of which will say it was meant to show what such destruction would entail in the real world. This is clearly not the case, as Metropolis is completely rebuilt a day later without any mention of the casualties. The action in that movie was meant to outdo the Avengers, but completely missed the point in the process.
Cloverfield is as close to what would really happen than anything we will ever get. Imagine, for a moment, being one of the people in any of those movies. Except, like the real world, there would be no giant mechas or superheroes to save the day. A film which such ambition hasn't arguably been made since the original Godzilla in 1954. And Cloverfield does just that.
You get to feel for these characters and imagine yourself in their position. When someone is injured or dies you understand the immensity of that loss in a way other large-scale films are unable to accomplish. And towards the end, most of the main cast die. Still, the film isn't completely nihilistic because at its core it is about spending the last few hours of your life wisely and with the ones you love. The events in the film are a microcosm of the apocalypse and it can be summed up in one scene towards the beginning of the movie, in which Rob's brother explains to him that "you needs to forget the world and hold on to the people you love most" before he's interrupted by the arrival of the monster. Truly the creative team knew what was most important above all else.
To further hammer home the point, it's also important to note the objective of the main characters. Again reflecting real life, such an event would be out of the hands of everyday ordinary people like you and I. There comes a point where you can't win the fight. Instead, the heroes in our story only hope to accomplish one thing: to find and stick with the people they love most and ensure their safety for as long as they can. It's a truly heartwarming story amidst the violence and destruction.
To sum it all up, if you come into this movie for the spectacle and giant monster alone the chances are you will be disappointed. I think this is where all the complaints about the lack of monster and too much time spent on the characters come from. But if you want to see an optimistic story about humanity during its 11th hour, where the inherent goodness of people comes out in full force during what can only be described as the end of the world, then you will be left with a film that leaves you moved and stays with you for a long time.