Welcome to my review of Cloverfield, one of the most hyped up movies of 2008 thanks to a wonderful marketing campaign and Internet buzz. One of the few times in present time where secrets were able to be kept almost until the movie opened. Turned out it was for good reason because if anyone had known any real facts about the movie it would not have fared so well in the theaters.

Clocking in a eighty-eight minutes you will find yourself looking at your watch for the first twenty or so as we are introduced to all our main characters and various monster bait at a going away party for the main character (to be honest I don't remember his name since I saw this movie on opening night and it really didn't make an impact for the characters). His friend is filming everyone to say goodbye to him and this is the point of view for the whole movie. It is very realistic and you can believe that this camera was all they had (and considering the special effect maybe all they could afford after they paid for those). Unfortunately this realism means that the tickets should have included Dramamine as it tended to induce a little vertigo in a lot of people.

Pretty soon there is lots of noise and mass destruction as this mental genius decides to head to the big scary monster to rescue his ex-girlfriend, who may or may not be alive. I really do not know which character is stupider, the main character or his friends for following him. It really amazed me how they would just keep going into worse and worse situations. I have heard of friendship but unless there were wedding vows involved I can not see me doing this. Thinking about this kept taking me out of the movie and that , to me, is a sign of a bad movie.

*SPOILER WARNING*

The thing that I think annoyed me the most was that all the characters die and we never find out what the stupid critter was (though if you sit through the credits there is a clue at the end). While I understand that the whole movie was from their point of view and they died before they found out it just seemed incredibly unsatisfying.

*END SPOILER*

All in all maybe good on cable for free, but don't waste your money on it if you can avoid it. The closest comparison I can make is that it is like eating a rice cake. It may look like food but thats all it is, looks. Look past the flash and avoid the crap.

Learn more about this author, Steven Voight.
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