What the American Godzilla should have been.

Rating: 8/10 (3 October 2009)

My Take: An exciting modern take on the old-fashioned monster movie.
Take a worn-out premise, give it a modern spin and make it just as scary and exciting for today's audiences. That's exactly what producer J.J. Abrams (ALIAS) and director Matt Reeves does and the premise being the old-fashioned "attack-of-the-giant-monster". The result was CLOVERFIELD, an exciting and frightening modern monster movie. I almost never get scared in scary movies nowadays, but this BLAIR WITCH meets GODZILLA does the trick. Here's a movie that begs to be seen on the big screen, where the loud sound system could take advantage of your senses. But seeing the movie on the small screen, with maybe a few lights dimmed and a bag of popcorn at hand, the movie is nonetheless effective.
The premise is simple: A giant unseen monster attacks good ol' New York, as seen from the perspective of someone with a digital camera. The movie opens with a surprise farewell party for Rob (Michael Stahl-David) who's leaving New York for a new job in Japan. Documenting the event is Hud (T.J. Miller) was asked to interview Rob's friends during the entire party, including Rob's girlfriend Beth (Jessica Lucas) who expresses her reluctance for leaving. But once Hud films an explosion and a decapitated Statue of Liberty in the distance, the movie gets going. The disembodied head of the Statue flies across the street and the giant unseen behemoth proceeds to rip apart the Big Apple, and the movie gives us that uneasy feeling of being there as mayhem arises. The characters aren't exactly authentic, but here's an instance where they don't need to be. By the end of the film, you couldn't care less if Rob would choose the job in Japan or stay with his girlfriend; you just want them to get the hell out of there alive. That's what makes them effective.
After 9/11, it's hard not to think that the mayhem in CLOVERFIELD echoes the events of that tragic event. This is probably the most accurate metaphoric view of the 9/11 since Spielberg's WAR OF THE WORLDS. But above all, CLOVERFIELD is a great monster movie. It takes this usually worn-put genre and makes it just as scary and as exciting as such classics as KING KONG, THEM! and THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS used to be. CLOVERFIELD is bound to join other luminaries in the genre as one of the best monster movies of all time, and if that sounds like a faint praise, it isn't.
Rating: **** out of 5.