Cloverfield opens with a party and introduces us to five twenty-something New Yorkers, including Rob (Stahl-David) who’s going away to Japan, his crush Beth (Yustman), his brother Jason (Vogel) and Hud (Miller) – the friend who has decided to capture every moment on camera. Unfortunately the party is interrupted by the appearance of a mysterious giant monster replete with tentacles, scales and a huge tail hell bent on destroying NYC. As the armed forces evacuate the city and try to fight the monster, the group of friends are forced to go back into the fray as they are split up from Beth
Matt Reeve’s movie is shot throughout on a handheld camera and captures the atmosphere of the end of the world perfectly and the invasive quality provides a great point of view to get to know the protagonists. This slightly revolutionary idea set the scene for a number of similar efforts over a range of genres. Normally, the end-of-the-worlder introduces a cavalcade of characters you can barely remember, keep a track of or care about but Cloverfield just gives us a handful of good friends which ties in nicely with the personal element of the film.
The subplot revolving around earlier memories that come from the being recorded over is a nice touch and gives a bit of background to the characters in a subtle and original manner. A nice touch is the lack of explanation regarding the monster so the usual explanation overload that usually leads to incredulity and disappointment is absent here. Also, many main junctures in the story are left ambiguous and upto the audience to decide therefore lending the movie decent after-viewing talking points and subsequently longevity.
The only real quibble comes with the climax of the film as Matt Reeve seems to have run out of ideas towards the end and, in my opinion, the wrong ending was chosen.