Fresh take on a stale genre

Rating: 9/10 (17 January 2008)

Cloverfield brings some originality in the telling of the classic Monster attacks city story.
Some like to complain about the fact that it is hand held and not filmed in the usual standard, this I feel is what made Cloverfield so easy to get into, as it has an almost first person experience. Others complain about the infinite battery on the camera...unless you want to be watching black after half an hour I think people should really let this one go, the "infinite battery" criticism is something people use who are looking to hate this film, they make a point of how unrealistic it is, you know since all other movies are entirely realistic of course.
someone wrote a review saying they couldn't believe that the camera happened to have night vision settings, a built in light and all that. Well newsflash, most handi-cams these days come with those features, I have one over 3 years old that had a very bright light on it, plus a nightvision mode...very unrealistic of course.
The two big things that really make this film great are two things missing not only from the genre but most films these days, and that is Characters you can care about, and not over explaining everything. This film doesn't explain what happens to NY, or the monster, or what the little creatures infect people with to make them explode, or where the monster comes from, why it is attacking NY. That may seem like a lot, but it allows people to use their imagination and considering most people these days do very little thinking I would call this film a type of therapy. The monster itself looks cool, I felt it could have had a slightly better design but since it is not in your face throughout the film that's forgivable.
It is a new take on the genre, any monster film in the future will have to emulate the immersion the audience got with this film or fail outright. Some people will feel sick due to hand held filming, thats a given, and those who hate it when people do something new will hate it but I recommend giving this film a go, J.J. has redeemed himself to some degree with this film after ruining LOST with season 2&3.