Cloverfield

Just saw Cloverfield last night. Simply put: I loved it. It was exactly what I thought it was going to be, and the payoff was awesome. I don't remember any marketing campaign for a movie as genius as this movie's campaign. It started in July when the teaser trailer for this movie was released alongside Transformers. It left audiences gasping, desperately trying to figure out what this movie was, but more specifically, what this movie was called. There was no title attached to the trailer making the teaser even that much more of a teaser. The teaser (and the movie) was shot only with a handheld camera, giving it a very Blair Witch Project vibe. We only got some people at a party wishing Rob good luck on his trip to Japan. Then there's an earthquake and people started freaking out and from the roof of their apartment they can see a huge explosion that takes place at or around the Chrysler Building. They all head down to the streets to see what's going on, and then again from the direction of the Chrysler Building comes something flying through the air. This huge thing hits a building and then comes flying towards the people on the street and lands, and its the Statue of Liberty's head. Then the teaser ends, only giving the date of release. After I saw that I was obsessed with trying to figure out what the hell this thing was because it left me speechless.

I went online searching all movie sites and their forums and whatever else could give me news on this mystery movie, only known by the codename of "Cloverfield." On a couple of the sites I checked there were links to this puzzle site that these sites said were geared towards the campaign for codename Cloverfield. So after a couple of weeks I finally completed the puzzles, which was no easy feat, and after which I received an email saying to come back to this site and enter in the password (which was in the email) and I would be told how I could help save New York. I was ecstatic. Unfortunately, the next day, I found out that this site as actually a campaign for a video game, and not only that, a game that has nothing to do with codename Cloverfield. Since then I sort of was in the background for the movie, I didn't want to jump onto another false bandwagon. So I waited, bided my time, and finally I got to see the movie last night.

The movie kicked all sorts of ass. What's great is that this movie isn't about a giant monster that somehow got into New York and is causing havoc; this movie is about five friends, and how they are trying to survive through all of this. They're trying to navigate through the blazing streets of New York to find one of their other friends who is stuck at her apartment. So we only get these five people's perspective on how this all went down. We don't know how the president reacts firsthand, or what the military leaders are thinking firsthand, we get that information only by what's available to these five people and what's available on the camera.

If you want a good time at a theater, go see Cloverfield. It's not the greatest movie ever, but it's an entertaining movie that's worth seeing at least once.