Puts you in the driver's seat

Rating: 8/10 (21 January 2008)

When I first went to see Cloverfield I was skeptical about the movie. A monster attacks Manhattan and tears off the Statue of Liberty's head, seemed like a normal monster movie plot. When I went to see it, however, I was thoroughly impressed. The movie is shot as from a hand-held camera, yet another part of the movie I was originally skeptical about, which ends up working out brilliantly. Usually when you see a bunch of people running through streets you still know what is going on, but with this style of filming you are actually in the street. You can't tell what is going on any more than the characters in the film.
The acting I thought was great. It seemed as if the actors were really into their roles. When Manhattan was first attacked, everyone's reaction was perfect. The fear that you could see in people's faces was very realistic.
The ending I did not like at first. It seemed that it just cut off and that was it. After I thought about it though, the ending worked out really well. It fit perfectly with the style this movie was trying to achieve.
The only complaints that I have about this movie are that some of it was predictable, like in the subway tunnels, and that sometimes they would leave the camera tilted one way, even if someone was still holding it. I felt that when they did this, people were focused more on trying to figure out what they were seeing rather than what was going on in the movie.
Overall, this movie was really good and very entertaining. I would suggest to anyone that you see this movie in theater as that just adds to the fear that the characters go through.