Intense.

Rating: 8/10 (31 January 2008)

'Cloverfield' isn't a movie you can persuade people to love. There are no real arguments as to why it was so good for me. I guess it's just an experience, either you feel the movie or you don't at all.
This comparison has been done a million times but I'm going to bring it up again...it's not (at all) like The Blair Witch Project or Godzilla. A movie is more than just the main plot outline or the camera technique used. For me, Cloverfield is simply a great movie-going experience, it's best seen in the theater and in the company of people who know how to keep their mouths shut during an intense movie.
The use of (relatively) unknown actors was a brilliant move, it contributed a great deal to the reality factor and the high shock/scare factor that accompanies it. The use of a home-cam isn't 100% original of course and neither is the idea for the story outline itself but does it really matter for a movie as hypnotizing as this? Some scenes had me literally on the edge of my seat, biting my nails and pulling my hair. I'm a pretty easy empathizer but still...not a great deal of movies have this extreme effect on me. This is partly the cast's credit, who all did a good to even fantastic job. Of course, a role like this is a dream for an actor, you really can go all-out (explore the extreme emotional side of your persona) in movies filled with extreme crisis-situations like this. Especially the guy who played the lead-character came off very natural to me, both during the relaxed opening scenes and the unnerving ones.
You might not agree with me, but even the haters have to realize what a great breath of fresh air this movie is compared to a lot of Hollywood movies coming out recently. There have been a lot of great ones this year, I'm not complaining, but I can only think of two movies that really where special (NCFOM and this one).
Finally, the question that plays in everyone's head...did it live up to the hype? In my opinion...most definitely. You may not like it but I'd strongly advise everyone to check out the movie, you may end up loving it to death...
7.6/10