You'll either hate it or love it.

Rating: 8/10 (22 January 2008)

*** Alright, I usually don't do this when I review something. But Cloverfield is a movie that really needs spoilers to be understood when reviewed. Minor spoilers should help in deciding whether or not you should see the movie. ***
The first thing you need to know, is that the movie has a very shaky camera (although the visuals are VERY impressive). If you absolutely CANNOT stand shaky camera filming (which gets only gets really shaky when the monster comes around and causes havoc), don't bother watching it. My friends kept ranting about it, however I truly believe people exaggerate on that. I quickly got used to Cloverfield's shaky camera and believe me, Cloverfield wouldn't work without the first person view, or at least the effects would be less intense if it were in a third person perspective.
The second thing you need to know is, again, you're watching this from an ORDINARY EVERYDAY AVERAGE person's perspective. Don't expect Tom Cruise or Matt Damon as a character to save the day and raid the hell out of a gigantic monster. This is J.J. Abrams's vision of a monster movie and it really isn't your average monster (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). Not everything in the movie is explained, because again, these are normal people, they're not the governments or doctors who quickly studies on the creature to figure out what exactly is going on.
The third thing you need to know is, the movie starts out pretty slowly, but nothing too harsh to be honest. I believe you can bare 20 minutes of character development, which is actually a good thing, because those 20 minutes actually made me care about the characters. Besides, after those 20 minutes, the movie becomes an intense joyride.
So I conclude, after months anticipation, the movie was filled with intense moments, had pretty solid acting (nothing felt forced or machine-like) and has a monster that SHOULD be an iconic monster for America (the monster looks seriously awesome).