Cloverfield: A Review

There will be many long winded passages about the genius of this film, or the death of classical cinema, or how it kicks ass and is a great monster flick, or how it gives people head aches.

I’m not going to be long winded here.

I’m just going to tell you that Cloverfield is an excellent film. I’m not going to talk about the style or point out what this or that means. Going to see this film tonight was the first time in a very long time that I simply sat back and just experienced a movie. Sure, for the first fifteen minutes I was analyzing everything, but as soon as the action started that part of my brain clicked off and I sat amazed.

I turned to Toku several times, biting my fingernails and whispering, “I love this movie” with a happy grin on my face.

I really enjoyed this film. I hope you do too. Just try and remember that no matter what the debate may be about the style of the film, it is still just a story. A damned fine one at that.

So enjoy it…you don’t have to be an intellectual about it.

UPDATE!:

If you are wondering what exactly I loved so much about this film here are a few points:

The dialogue was believable and the comedy relief was well placed and made me laugh each time.
The pacing, the balance of action and tension was great, there are moments when you are just waiting around and you are anxious and then BAM stuff is happening very quickly and there’s no time to feel anything but excitement.
The sound design is great.
The editing. Sometimes I would be aware of how long a shot had gone on for and then when the camera was hit or something there would be a slight, slight black out and I had to remember that was an edit. So I didn’t notice the editing for the most part, which I enjoyed.
It was a “thrillride”. I didn’t understand what that stupid phrase meant until this movie.
The whole story, like the reason these people are running around the city in the first place and not being evacuated. I liked it because I would like to think that if some monster attack hit Toronto I would have the ability and nobility to try and save someone who was important to me.
The visual effects. There was only one moment where I didn’t like something, it involved a helicopter. Everything else was fantastic.

ONE MORE UPDATE!:

The monster(s) were kick ass.