Blows Godzilla Out of the Water

Rating: 10/10 (18 January 2008)

I just want to state before I review this movie, I am a huge Cloverhead and I followed the viral marketing for a little more than half a year and was constantly tormented by Matt Reeves and J.J., however, this movie, with all the hype and intensity that was raved about, delivered one heck of a blow to the "monster" genre. In fact, I was so stunned and shocked about the movie and how vastly different it was then what I originally thought it would be. One would to describe this movie would be: WHOA!!!! It was better than Godzilla, better than Them and better than Beast from 10,000 Fathoms and it really lived up to the hype from the Internet. Heck, we all know how incredible and amazing the viral marketing was, so I will bore you with those details.
So lets get to it; first off is the acting, if it weren't for the performances and the emotions that where displayed in this movie, the film would have been really bad and just another cheap monster flick. The acting seemed so real and intense, there some times where you could feel for what the actors and actresses had to go through and there were points were you could cry and say "Oh my god." Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas and Michael Stahl-David were all amazing and they really did a fantastic job. Even Mike Vogal and T.J. Miller (Hud) all acted like real people. There were points were I thought I was watching a real account of real people struggling to survive. There performances gave me the chills, they were just really, really good acting.
This is a two-part paragraph highlighting the scares and suspense. For a PG-13, the scares were awesome. I will admit there were points where I jumped out of my seat or I would fly back into my chair, especially in the subway tunnel. The scares were not only creature features or mini-monster attacks, but also the jets the fly by out of nowhere, or the distant rumbles and the roar, the little things. But what makes the scares to prime is also the suspense that is in this movie. Because it is from the POV of a camcorder, held by Hud, you are literally right there when the army attacks the monster or when the monster walks by, you ARE right there and you can practically hear and feel it coming. The explosions, the running, the gunfire, the jets and helicopters are all right in your face it feels like you part of the movie. It was really intense both in a frightening way and in a super suspense way. The way they created NY to look like all heck broke loose was outstanding, the rubble on the floor and the smoke everywhere, however, this movie might get dogged for some scenes that looked really close to the 9/11 aftermath. However, J.J. said that the monster was a metaphor for what our country has faced much like how Godzilla was a metaphor for that Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks.
As for the little things in this movie, they were pretty great also. Hud adds great humor and personality to this film, just when things are starting to get bad and look horrid, he makes some great jokes and his personality is laughable. The whole "handycam" feel they went for worked, it was shaky, the iris did flux a bit, it opened up when pointed at a bright object, there were time and dates on some of the footage, there were random cut to the previous day and there were even some fuzziness to the picture. There was a great Spongebob reference in the movie that I loved, considering that the monster came from the ocean. It's little things like this that made the movie all worth watching too, I mean, the scares and the acting fill up the majority of this movie but the little things fill in the nook and crannies of the pie chart.
I would strongly recommend that you see this in a theater because the noise, explosions and monster attacks just don't work on home entertainment, for those who are thinking about buying the DVD. Please, see it in the theater because it won't be disappointing, honest it won't. However, there are a few things that I want to add before you see it. STAY TILL THE VERY END OF THE MOVIE, when the credits are done rolling, you'll be amazed by what it heard and be prepared for a slight case of motion sickness. But this is one movie that will blow any other monster movie out of the water.