Amazing

Rating: 9/10 (17 January 2008)

Cloverfield was always in danger of dying by not being able to live up to it's own hype, but coming from someone who wasn't closely following the viral marketing and waiting with bated breath for any new piece of news on the film, the final product is one of the most impressively engaging films I've seen in a long while.
It's pretty much 4 people going through a torn to pieces New York city whilst a huge creature who's origins are unknown rampages through it. The action is 'documented' through a domestic handy cam, and the rest takes care of itself.
A lot of people are complaining that the story is weak, or there are things not explained, the ending is too abrupt and so on. What these people fail to realise is that this is no conventional film. First of all, you can't really devise a clever, compelling story from the a film that is intended to be viewed as a real life, homemade, handy cam job. (In the context of the story) There is no experienced Director calling the shots, the man behind the camera is not a professional cinematographer, it's a regular person doing their best to capture the madness that has gripped the city. It's from the first person perspective of people caught in this chaos. So if you expect high quality visual storytelling on a level such as the Coen brothers, you really are being naive.
I personally feel that if the origins of the monster and the whole "what happens next" song and dance would have let this film down. The sudden ending keeps with the nature of a real life essence of the thing. You only see and hear what you need to and you can draw whatever conclusions you want after it's over. The final 15-20 minutes you know that an event will occur that will likely end the picture, and when it arrives, that's it. I didn't think the ending was abrupt or annoying at all. An annoyingly abrupt ending would be something like the batteries on the camera running out in the middle a big action sequence. There's none of that here.
If you don't go into this film expecting a simple, fast & loud wild ride then you will be disappointed. But if you do take it for what it is, it'll be one of the cinematic highlights of the year.