Review: Cloverfield (2008)

Cloverfield

IMDB rate: 7,1

Genre: Found-footage, Survival

I really love the movie Cloverfield, the more I watch it, the more I like it. I keep noticing new things which makes it always a fun to watch. I think it's a very good found footage movie. The acting is good and there's actually quite a good view of the monster. This is quite rare for a found-footage movie.

Cloverfield follows five New Yorkers from the perspective of a hand-held video camera. The movie is exactly the length of a DV Tape and a sub-plot is established by showing bits and pieces of video previously recorded on the tape that is being recorded over. The movie starts as a monster of unknown origin destroys a building. As they go to investigate, parts of the building and the head of the Statue of Liberty come raining down. The movie follows their adventure trying to escape and save a friend, a love interest of the main character.

The acting in this movie is excellent. Main characters are being played by Jessica Lucas, Odette Annable, T.J. Miller, Lizzy Caplan and Michael Stahl-David. Jessica Lucas is also seen in the remake of Evil Dead and in the horror movie Amusement. I haven't seen Evil Dead so I can't judge that movie but I have seen Amusement and that's quite a shitty movie. Her acting performances were absolutely not good but I quite liked her in Cloverfield. I've seen Lizzy Caplan in a few comedy movies so I was not sure how she would be in a horror movie, I found her personally quite boring and not very special. I like her better in a comedy. Another familiar comedy actor is T.J. Miller, a character that is unfortunately not much seen since he operates the camera, you do hear him a lot though. I liked his character in the movie, he was funny and constantly talking to himself. He was complaining about running while he was running from a monster, not very believable but he gave the movie a tiny bit of comedy. I think that the romance in the movie wasn't necessary. I found it a bit frustrating at times but it gave them a reason to travel to the other side of Manhatten. I would also have liked another storyline were they tried to escape Manhatten. I do like the storyline the way it is though, but the romance was a bit cliche.

The big monster looks very real in the movie. I think it's very difficult to make a monster look believable and real in a found-footage movie, but I was quite impressed by it. Apparently the monster is some sea creature. He looks like a giant salamander. There are also a lot of tiny monsters who look a bit like spiders. They look very awesome.
My favorite moment in the movie was the moment where the head of the Statue of Liberty was thrown of and landed right beside them (shown in the picture above).

At some points in the movie it's very confusing what is happening, but that's the risk of a found-footage. I think that it's very likely that some people might get sick because of this. I normally don't notice it that much but some moment were a bit too shaky.

I really enjoy watching this movie, I think it's really good. The acting is magnificent and you actually cared about the characters. The monsters look amazing and are truly scary. The scariest scene in my opinion was the scene in the subway where Hud uses night-vision on the camera.

I really recommend watching Cloverfield, for those who haven't seen it yet. It's an enjoyable movie with a touch of science-fiction. Excellent acting and a good plot.

My personal rate: 8,5/10