A movie technology masterpiece; a unique experience for the audience

Rating: Null/10 (22 January 2008)

Anyone considering oneself a regular moviegoer should experience this. I have chosen my word deliberately, for this is indeed an EXPERIENCE not to be missed. A regular moviegoer who has not seen "The Blair witch project" would at least be well aware of it. I understand that it is really filmed with a hand-held camera. But don't be fool by "Cloverfield". This one is high tech stuff that impersonates a hand-held camera, but doing it so successfully that it deserves to be called a movie technology masterpiece.
The entire movie is supposed to be a camcorder "documentation" recovered from "what used to be known" as Central Park after a major disaster ravished Manhattan. The two people who shot the film (one for the first 80 minutes and other the last 5 minutes) are dead. What the audience experience is the first hand POV of four (plus one more at the end) people's ordeal during a devastating attack of New York City by a monster creature the origin of which is never explained (nor is that really necessary). There is nothing that you have not seen before if you are a regular moviegoer who has watched the "Aliens" and "Jurassic Park" series. "Cloverfield" simply repackages all the familiar images that you have seen in these movies. The beauty is in the way it has been done, and this has to be, as I said, experienced first hand, something that no amount of IMDb user comments or film critic reviews can substitute.
Other comments you would definitely come across if you have followed written material about this movie are the obvious post-911 psychological complex and the love story aspect. But in the end, the lure of this movie is in the unique experience that no other movie has ever given you.