Different... In a GOOD Way!

Rating: Null/10 (23 January 2008)

When I first heard of Cloverfield I was browsing through this very site. Curious, over the lack of information I was finding, I looked for whatever I could find. Only to find very little, other than a few mostly vague trailers, some sketches of a sperm whale with legs and tentacles and some information which pretty much lead me to believe this movie is being held overly confidential for its (in a couple of months away) release date. Most trailers and sites have given any and all information on the movie as well as show every good scene within 1-2 minutes. I was Incredibly INTREGUED by knowing almost nothing. The only other thing I could find a mere days before the release was the entire movie was filmed with hand-held cameras... again, VERY intrigued.
So naturally I went and saw it. I didn't feel the least bit let down.
I was drawn to how mysterious the film seemed... though a monster movie is entirely unoriginal these days. But to me it really wasn't a monster movie, it was something I've always wanted to see, a movie filmed essentially from the point of view (POV) of the main characters. Like an old episode of the TV show M*A*S*H, except the character has a known identity. Yea so the movie is very, ummmm, "bouncy" but if you were running around through a battlefield and things were falling down, blowing up, etc... do you really think you see things as if standing perfectly still? Just how perfectly still do the things around you appear when your trying to sit still? I think the above mentioned made the characters that much better too. You didn't really want them to die, because you were them. They were your friends. You lived with them through brief but fun and hard times of their lives and then get thrown into this incredible situation.
The film wasn't overly comedic, it wasn't overly girlie/romancing, and it wasn't packed with ridiculous action scenes. I hate how almost EVERY movie, the main character is some kind of (SAVE THE DAY/WORLD and/or DESTROY THE ENEMY) type of hero. These characters did some crazy things... but they didn't defeat the monster, or come up with a way to defeat the monster. They didn't have some sort of scientific way to be attached to it (their mom or dad was some geneticist working on a government experiment). These characters were just chill, REAL people living their lives.
I wont have the chance to see many movies in the theater this year. I will be shipping out for Basic Training and Military Police School, which will last me most of the year with little to no time for movies. I am definitely happy I had a chance to see Cloverfield.
**!!SPOILERS BELOW!!** Not to many movies kill off ALL of the main characters. Though we are only left to assume that one may have made it out alive on the first chopper. Honestly... I thought this was great.
The ending kind of sucked, I see a sequel in the making. In my opinion, it wont be a whole new monster somewhere else or that the original didn't die in the final bombing run. I think that it may pick up from another persons perspective during the original attack, and lead to answering the many unanswered questions we are left with.