Official Synopsis:
From visionary producer J.J. Abrams (Lost) and director Matt Reeves comes the worldwide sensation of nonstop terror and suspense everyone is talking about.

  
Our Take:
I’m just glad it wasn’t a giant lion.

Half of you probably know exactly what I’m talking about, the other half are probably thinking, “Why the heck is this guy talking about a big cat?” In the Cloverfield television commercial, which was pretty much the only thing anyone saw of the film before its release, there’s a line of audio where someone yells, “I saw it! It’s alive! It’s huge!” However, no matter how many times I listened to it, all I could hear was “I saw it! It’s a lion! It’s huge!” And my biggest fear leading up to seeing the film in theaters was that this extremely cool looking movie would be about a giant lion terrorizing New York City. In fact, I saw an interview with director Matt Reeves, who told the story about how it was actually him who recorded that line of dialogue specifically for the trailer, and how he spoke so fast and has a high pitched voice that it came out sounding like “lion.” Mystery solved.

Luckily, Cloverfield is not about a lion, but rather a… well, we’re still not sure what it is. The film is a pretty traditional monster/disaster movie, but with the handheld camera point of view present throughout to shake things up. Literally shake things up, actually. Yes, the film is often shaky and yes, a lot of people have complained about that. And yes again, a lot of people on the internet have complained about the people who complained about the shakiness. Personally, I do find it a bit annoying, so I can understand people’s frustrations, but I don’t think that it really dampened my enjoyment of the film. That being said, however, I think that the whole handheld camera point-of-view is utterly unnecessary. I just don’t understand what that gave us that a traditionally made film wouldn’t have, except for a lower budget. I think you could have made almost the exact same movie with multiple cameras and still followed the same group of people and seen the same events.

The DVD is being marketed as “revealing more secrets” and to a certain extent it does, but mostly that’s in terms of production secrets. Anyone looking for a deeper understanding of the events of the film or the creature itself will probably be disappointed.

* Deleted Scenes – Four deleted scenes with optional commentary.
* Alternate Endings – Two endings that differ extremely slightly; these aren’t as exciting as you’d hope.
* Cloverfun (4 minutes) – Your basic blooper reel.
* Document 1-18-08 (28 minutes) – A pretty good making-of feature.
* Cloverfield Visual Effects (22 minutes) – A look at the effects in the film and how they were achieved.

* I Saw It, It’s Alive, It’s Huge (5 minutes) – Focuses on the creature’s design.
* Commentary By Director Matt Reeves – All technical, no secrets are revealed here.

Cloverfield is a solid movie that may annoy you in terms of the handheld nature of the camera, but there are some good thrills and a few really chilling moments in it. Overall, I enjoyed the film, I just didn’t love it as much as I hoped I was going to. It’s a fun romp for people who like the aforementioned monster and disaster flicks, which I absolutely do. But it’s also a powerful example of how clever marketing and trailers that don’t actually show the entire movie can generate box office success for a film that doesn’t necessarily live up to the hype.

Overall Picture:
Movie: B
DVD: B+

- Mike Spring

Editor