A Standard Thriller With Redeeming Qualities

Rating: 7/10 (22 June 2016)

I saw Cloverfield for the first time quite a while ago, and at the time I felt that the found footage trend was at its inevitable end. Not because of Cloverfield, but because of all the other sub-par found footage movies that go straight to DVD. That is, unfortunately, the undoing of this genre for me. However, I do still thoroughly enjoy a select few, Cloverfield being one of them. I do still like this movie a decent amount, and I think it is just a good movie in general.
Despite that, I do have some problems with Cloverfield. First of which, the time is not managed very wisely at all. With a run time of only 84 minutes, there has to be some haste in which the story progresses. For the first, maybe, 20 minutes or so, the only eventful happenings are rather dull, and only loosely connected with the main flow and story of the movie. This would be forgivable if the movie lasted about two hours or so, or maybe even 1 hour and 40 minutes, but 20 minutes is still 25% of the movie. But regardless, though, the movie is still mostly entertaining. Monster movies have taken a rise in quality recently, in the past 8 years or so, and I can surely call Clovefield one of them. Take movies such as Pacific Rim, Godzilla, and others of the sort, and you find that a serious budget and lots of time are put forth to make them, and it is the same deal with Cloverfield, even though it might not look like it what with the shaky camera and short running time.
But let me talk about the good things with Cloverfield. First of all, the special effects are superb. They are very well done, for sure. The design of the entire movie is just first rate. The creature look just amazing, at the times you actually see it that is. And that is another thing where the movie takes a tumble a small bit. Even though you do see the creature many different times, each of those times lasts only a bit, maybe 5 seconds max, except for one part, but you will see that if you ever watch the movie. This gets very annoying after a while, and you just start to wish the camera would focus a bit more. Although, you can't really ask for much more when a giant monster is chasing you down and smashing stuff all around you. But movies don't have to be realistic, right? Anyway, there are still other good parts about the movie other than the effects. The acting, writing, and everything else, really, is good. There are no boring parts, really. But that's possibly because of the short run time.
The only reason I give Cloverfield a 7/10 is because it doesn't really deliver that KO punch that is rare for a movie. It is a very good movie, and I have pretty much no problems with it at all, save for a few minor things here and there. Nothing comes forth during the movie's run that just blows your mind. Thus, a solid 7/10 for Cloverfield.