A Fun and Exciting Different Approach to A Familiar Genre

Rating: 7/10 (12 August 2008)

Imagine you're documenting a friend's farewell party with a camcorder, and suddenly the earth shook, a blackout, explosions, and something huge is attacking your city. So you run with your friends to safety, all the while, recording everything on the camcorder. Scary. Cool.
I liked the concept from the first time I saw the trailer. Surely, a giant monster flick told from a survivor's side has been done in War of The Worlds (2005), but Cloverfield dared to go on a step further with the story being told by a survivor's camcorder. It is just so interesting because it gives a different feel of reality. Be warned though, the camcorder-amateur style shots may be dizzying in the beginning but you'll get used to it if you agree to accept the whole concept.
Surely people will say that it's a marriage between Blairwitch and Godzilla, and yes it can be an appropriate simplified description of Cloverfield. Some will definitely be disappointed by the story, there's really nothing too new there. In fact, a lot of clichés are used. But I'm not complaining on clichés because it's already a different approach. Godzilla told from the view of a survivor who recorded everything on his camcorder. It's a fresh new approach to monster movies, and surely inspires imaginations.
My only complaint is that in many scenes you can really feel that the movie tried too hard to hide the monster. There are some occasions where it cuts away just way too early only so that you'll be curious of what exactly is going on. There are times that, I think, even when you're scared, you'd still try to get a shot of the monster and record anything informative. A huge giant monster is attacking your city, and you barely try to get its picture? Why bother with the camcorder then, just ditch it and run for your life! But that's okay, I still totally enjoyed the movie. Besides, perhaps the writers already prepared the reason, "because the character documenting everything is kinda dumb". If we simply try to be a simple audience and not a critic, I think Cloverfield is the closest thing to 'realistic' as any monster flick can get. It just feels more real because of the whole "survivor's camcorder" concept.