Cloverfield delivers thrills, suspense and surprises!

Rating: 8/10 (18 January 2008)

Just in case it wasn't obvious, the following review DOES contain spoilers. I strongly suggest you don't read on if you haven't seen the film, and you intend to.**
As did most people, I walked into Cloverfield with hardly a clue as to the plot of the film. First off, I would like to point out that the film's advertising was done extremely well - allowing viewers to guess what the plot was introduced them to one of the movie's main ideas. The film is shown from the perspective of five average New Yorkers, four of which hold a going-away party for their friend Rob on the evening of the attack on New York. Those five then fight for survival, escaping the giant monster and the little spidery creatures that come along with it - all documented on a camcorder. This gives the film's audience little idea as to exactly what is happening, exactly as the characters feel.
The cinematography is, as I mentioned before, done on a camcorder (or so the viewer suspects). It is very reminiscent of the Blair Witch Project, and some scenes (one in particular that comes towards the end in mind...) may give the viewer motion sickness. But this merely adds to the film's realism, and makes the film seem amateur - which makes you believe the visual effects even more.
I first heard about Cloverfield back when I saw Transformers, when the teaser appeared before the film. Back then it was untitled, and I was fairly unenthusiastic about the film. But when a friend told me about Cloverfield and showed me the teaser again a few months back, I got more and more excited - and today when I walked into the cinema I could barely contain it. Luckily, my expectations were met, possibly even surpassed, by the end of the film. It starts off generally low key, but the slow build up pays off when the main plot gets running. The build up also helps us to understand the characters more, so that development is not needed during the monster's rampages.
The monster itself is truly an amazing character in the film, as at first you expect it to be your classic Dinosaur-like creature when you see small glimpses of it as it claws its way through buildings at the start of the film. In fact, it is actually almost a good hour into the film before you can determine the monster's shape, and even then it is hard to tell what exactly it looks like. Hopefully on the DVD we get a documentary that shows CGI models.
(If you haven't seen the film and would like to find out for yourself what it looks like, don't read on).
Off the top of my memory, the monster has a round-ish face with fangs that are sort of reminiscent of the deep-sea fish that dwell in the darker portions of the ocean. It's front legs sprout forwards from the shoulder, a little bit like a spider, and the body gradually gets smaller until it finishes off with two (or one, I can;t remember all that well) legs and a long, slimy tail. (Spoiler warning) There are a few quite frightening up-close-and-personal shots of the monster, two in mind - once as it lunges forwards and takes down a helicopter, and again... well, I'll leave that one for you to see! The acting itself is quite good, especially considering they had to act while filming. It must be rather difficult to make a film if you're both the actor and the cameraman, and so I praise the cast - particularly T.J. Miller, who actually played the cameraman - for achieving the goal relatively realistically. The brief moments of silence in the film that are usually followed by the actors awakening from unconsciousness are actually quite tense, and these scenes are normally followed by some shocking images of small spidery creatures attacking or the giant monster lunging forwards and stepping on them, or something to the like of that. The film has some extremely shocking moments, although the one that I am bursting to write down is one that I will restrain from writing for those who haven't seen the film and yet who don't mind spoilers.
The lack of a soundtrack also adds to the film's reality, therefore increasing tension. Often you will find that in a lot of mediocre horror films tension is (sometimes) ruined by music, although it does depend on what kind of music, I suppose.
This is in no means a rip off of Godzilla. No way was it inspired by King Kong. Cloverfield is a relatively original piece of work; I will admit that the topic is one that is commonly used, although this film portrays that topic very well and with a majesty that I'm not sure will be easy to top. And the fact that the movie is only around 70 - 75 minutes adds to the frightening aspect of it - it shows how quickly everything happened. I really enjoyed Cloverfield, despite that fact that I was frightened to death by the end, and I intend to see it again soon. I recommend it for fans of films like Godzilla - although trust me, once you see this, you'll never want to watch the '98 Godzilla again.
Let the rampage begin...