It got everyone talking, there was mass media speculation, and it did not even have an official title. At the time, it was billed as '1-18-08' which was the release date for it.
There were rumors that it would be a new Godzilla film or a spin-off to the Lost television series.
The viral marketing campaign was gearing it up perfectly with still very few things explained in the trailers, posters etc.
January 18th 2008 finally came around and I remember being their at the first screening at my local cinema. That was during a time when I rarely went to the cinema. So you can tell how excited I was to see what all this hidden secrecy is all about.
What I got in the end was a cleverly made found-footage monster movie that had me hooked throughout.
It begins with some underrated character development I feel. This is because many people were just waiting for the big reveal to happen. But I got really enhanced with these six main characters, I cared for them and I remembered their names. Whilst we're understanding their history together, we are also intrigued by some of the hand-held camera trickery to make this a real as real can be.
The rest of the film is case of survival for our main characters and whilst getting a Jaws-esque approach to revealing the monster. There is also a point towards of what I felt to be motion-sickness. Thankfully, it was only a minor one. But I heard reports Again, there remains the feeling of found-footage and more Easter eggs to be found right up to the very end of the credits, which I did say for. I just knew that with the amount of secrets they were hinting us, that they just had to give us another thing after the credits.
The performances for me are fantastic. They feel real throughout and the writing gives them a great amount of history that we can fit together to give six strong characters that we can care for. So props to Michael Stahl-David, T.J. Miller, Jessica Lucas, Odette Yustman, Lizzy Caplan and Mike Vogel for their terrific work on this.
This was definitely was the best films of 2008 for me. There is a perfect amount of suspense that is built up nicely. The way they use the found-footage technology felt to be done with grace compared to what is done now, and that has to be its biggest positive. It also gave them the opportunity to add in lots of little goodies to look for during the film that does give you some more info on why these events are happening on screen.
It managed to not overlong itself. The 85 minutes duration showed its snappy nature to this little project. Another theme that it encapsulates is the feeling of '9/11'. It's set in New York, it genuinely feels like a terrorist attack and there are even some scenes that are pretty identical to moments we have seen from that tragic day.
Despite Matt Reeves directing this, it is clearly producer J.J Abrams that is controlling everything around him. This is his baby and I welcome more films to be part of the Clover-verse.
Many see it as a cult film, and it is continuing to grow. For me Cloverfield is a landmark film. It gave us the perfect marketing campaign, it made the best use of the found-footage genre that has now become a pastiche of itself and it managed to make a gripping story with such well-round memorable characters.
Rating: 9/10
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