Cloverfield is a movie I knew nothing about before I sat down to watch it. I heard no reviews and I knew no one that actually saw the movie. Which, I think, made my experience that much better.

Drew Goddard wrote the script, who most of us know from Buffy, Angel, Alias and Lost - pretty impressive TV career. Matt Reeves, the Director, is pretty much from Felicity (writing and directing). But Matt Reeves, had an Ace in the whole, his friendship with JJ Abrams (who was also a Producer). JJ Abrams, for anyone that watches TV, doesn't need me to run down his list of accomplishments. So you put a top TV producer, a top TV writer and an ambitious TV director and you get Cloverfield.

Cloverfield is amazing, for my lack of a better word. The first shot is the words The Department of Defense, which is great for the tone. Then the movie begins and a man is holding a camera and he's talking and walking to show he is in a high-rise Manhattan apartment and then we see the female he is with. The remainder of the film is shot through the video camera, which gave you a sense of realism. It was the same feeling we all got when NYPD Blue hit the airwaves, a dizzying from hand held cameras but realistic feeling. There were several moments when you will get frustrated with the person holding the camera and want to get better views of the surrounding environment, but it all gives to the mood the creators wanted. All in all, if anyone of us was holding a camera when an alien were to attack, how much would we be watching as opposed to getting the 'H*l' out of the way.

Jason (Mike Vogel from Poseidon) begins the filming after his girlfriend Lily (Jessica Lucas from The Covenant) tells him to record the going away party for Rob (Michael Stahl-David from the amazing yet to be determined fate TV series The Black Donnelly's), Jason's brother. Jason grows tired of the task and then Hud (TJ Miller) takes over. Hud then finds Marlena (Lizzy Caplan from TV's Smallville and Tru Calling), Marlena doesn't appear interested in Hud but he continues to pursue and watch her. Then the young adult dram is played out through Hud spying on his friend Rob and Beth (Odette Yustman from TV's South Beach). Without giving anything away, lets just say they are setting the mood for the sub-plot of Rob and Beth (who, if you were paying attention are the two from the begining of the film).

Then and only then, after the drama, the real drama begins - the building shakes, electricity flickers, they all go to the roof and explosions begin and everyone (even us watching) first think of terrorists. The explosions erupt, the building rattles more and they all go outside. Then we get a lot of camera shakes and glimpses of shots, but the camera moves so much it's hard to focus in on what you are really seeing.

The subway attack, once in night vision, is pretty great. The view from inside the creature is pretty cool too. There are other scenes that I don't think would be fair to give away, but the two listed here are worth watching the film. The alien creature is not on film much, so the DVD will be great for pausing to get a better look at it. This movie is not a 'jump-out-of-your-seat hey the young people will kick the aliens butt and you'll wonder why we even have an army in this world. It is simply, what these five people go through when the first attack happened.

Cloverfield is a good film. I think it is filled with young actors and actresses we will be seeing a lot of. Oh and one spoiler, it is all over the Net that a sequel is already being worked on, so for those that want more of this style of filming be patient.

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