Cloverfield Movie Review Info and Analysis

The buzz surrounding JJ Abrahms Cloverfield movie was huge during late 2007 and early 2008. You couldn't go anywhere without hearing something about this film and I must admit it had one of the best marketing campaigns I have ever experienced. What with the hundreds of websites claiming to be affiliated with the film, the myspace pages and the official site with the photo's you could flip over to reveal hidden clues it was nothing short of pure genius. When I actually did get round to seeing the movie recently I was pleasantly surprised at how refreshingly different it was to anything I'd seen in a long time, and thankfully despite original reports it's NOTHING like the blair witch project. The only similarities between the two are that they are both filmed with handheld cameras. This effect does have a tendency to make you feel dizzy at first but you soon become accoustomed to it and almost forget you are watching it from this viewpoint. The story starts out quite slow, at Robs going away party, but soon picks up after a huge bang is heard from outside. Everyone rushes into the streets just in time to see several explosions and that much publicised scene of the head of the statue of liberty come flying off and into the middle of the New York streets. From this point things move very quickly, the action just keeps on coming and our first clear (ish) shot of the monster behind the attacks comes in the form of a huge tail or tentacle like thing that smashes the middle of a bridge that practically the whole city are trying to escape across! Rob and his friends are trapped on the wrong side of the bridge and decide to turn back in hope of rescuing the love of his life ‘Beth' who is trapped at the other side of the city. As they make their way towards her apartment, we realise that smaller bug like creatures are falling off of the huge monster demolishing the city, and as one of the gang soon learns if you are bitten or attacked by them you die a very quick and bloody death. Once Beth has been rescued the friends make their way back to the other side of the city where helicopters are waiting to take people to safety, but just as they think they are safe Rob's helicopter is hit from the sky by the monster leaving them to plummet into the centre of a fight between the military and monster. With just Beth and Rob left alive we get some amazing shots of the true nature of the huge monster and just how dangerous it really is, leaving us in suspense right at the end after a huge explosion and the camera battery running out. We can only assume that Beth and Rob are dead, but who knows, maybe a sequel will reveal more? I really enjoyed this film, I do however feel like it was just setting the scene for more to come, it is rumoured there will be a Cloverfield 2 and I honestly hope that's true as I would love to find out more about the monster and why it was attacking, where it came from etc! There were so many questions that remain unanswered that it would be almost impossible to just leave things here surely? Have you watched Cloverfield? What did you think to the movie and did it live up to your expectations?