2008 of to GR8 start

Rating: 9/10 (9 February 2008)

Hi it's the 14 year old film fanatic again and this is my review on cloverfield.
To review this film i'm going to have to go back to july 2007: Me and a friend went to t go see the first showing of transformers, and me being film fanatic i could name every film trailer that was showing. But. This random trailer came on. I knew nothing about it and i'm sure other people were wondering what this was as well. The trailer showed a party then rumbling then explosions and a familiar head rolling down the street. After that it said 1-18-08 from producer j.j. Abrams. And then from the short space of silence between that trailer all anyone could hear was whispers of confusion "Godzilla, Blair witch knock off, Lost spin off, Cthulu." I had made the assumption that it was Godzilla but much more deep. But i would love the idea of Cthulu as i love lovecraftian. After that it was an internet frenzy, viral website, tie-ins, fake sites and crazy rumours that the story was gods versus aliens.
But then the new trailer came out and finally after 6 months Cloverfield is here and i've just come back from seeing it.
In case you haven't already guessed the film is about a giant monster attacking the city of new york. It's shot in the same hand-held camera style as the Blair witch and it documents a small group of people trying to save a friend and escape Manhattan.
First of all there are loves and hates about the style of shooting. The loves is that the fact that it's shot through a hand-held digi-cam adds that sense of true depth rather than seeming really hollywoodised. Also there are no opening credits, just bunch of numbers and strange TV symbols explaining the film is a document in an event designated cloverfield. That one thing makes it seem like it's true and adds to it's expanded universe. But the one major problem is flashing strobe lights but mostly the shaky camera which at certain points makes you stop eating popcorn 'cause your feeling travel sick.
The effects. Well for a film made in entire secrecy it's a massive surprise. By looking at it you would think you would know someone was making a film on a massive scale. It was relatively low budget but it was made great. Great tense moments like the Brooklyn bridge snapping in half etc. almost seemed epic and mega expensive. The monster. I'm not going to go into details of what the monster looks like. But i thought it would follow the tradition of "Less is more" But it didn't and you got to see the monster up close and it looks amazing.
The acting truly is deep and you have a feeling for the characters. Even though you can understand their situation you understand they're misfortune.
Once the film came to it's rather dull ending. (True love conquers all) You can't help but stand up and clap, i applauded at this film it was amazingly made, deep, and it wasn't clichéd or exaggerated and was a new gust of fresh air.
The allegations of the 9/11 allusions are almost annoying. And i don't mean to offend anyone who is connected to 9/11 i sympathise but comparing mass murdering suicide bombers to a fictional CGI monster is ludicrous.
The ending of the film did eventually put me off that the two remaining characters, who are each others love interest die in each others arms screaming i love you. But if you have the patience to sit through the credits like i did then you will get an extra surprise.
Definitely worth your time and has been my favourite film of 2008 so far.