You can make a boring movie about anything....even a monster invasion.

Rating: 4/10 (18 February 2009)

Despite being hailed as one of the 'most anticipated movies ever' around the start of 2008, I have to say I was never really bothered about Cloverfield and as such never found myself in any rush to see it. So now the hype has died down and finally I've seen the film and all I can say is that I'm relieved I didn't rush out to see it because after spending barely seventy minutes on the film, all I really have to say about it is that it's boring! Cloverfield begins with around fifteen minutes of character building and it's a major turn off. The main characters are all twenty something good looking "cool guys" that say things like 'dude' a lot. One of them is going away and he fancies one of the girls or something like that...etc etc. It reminded me a lot of one of those American TV dramas that I never watch. Anyway, they're all huddled together at a dull 'leaving party' when all of a sudden; Manhattan is shaken by an "earthquake". However, it's not an earthquake and in fact New York is being invaded by CGI monsters.
The film's main gimmick is that it's all filmed on a camera held by one of the main protagonists - in the same style as that film from 1999 that shall not be mentioned. Surprisingly, this isn't one of the main things I didn't like about the movie. The film is basically a special effects-fest and there's two ways that the budget is used; firstly we've got the shots of buildings falling and various things being destroyed, which is fairly well done. But then we've got the shots of the monsters, which are awful! They're poorly designed and the effects just look cheap. The film has enough problems to ensure that cheap-looking CGI isn't enough to spoil it on its own, but it doesn't help either. The effects are generally shown briefly, and in the case of the monsters this is a very good thing. Undoubtedly the most 'interesting' thing about the movie is the shots of helpless people panicking; but even this is not used to good - or exciting - effect. I would imagine that this film will be a great watch for any movie buffs that live in New York; if the movie were set in my home town, I'm sure that I'd have a great time watching everything get pummelled, but for the 99.9% of viewers that live elsewhere, this movie is unlikely to deliver the thrills you're after.