Cloverfield: How can a monster movie be this good?

The hype surrounding Cloverfield was akin to that of The Blair Witch Project when it came out. Things such as cryptic trailers and inventive viral marketing campaigns made it easy for people (such as myself) to get hooked and wait with baited breath to check out the equilvalent of an "American Godzilla movie."

In the film, Robert Hawkins is getting ready to leave Manhattan for a job in Japan. However, his new gig takes a back seat when the city is attacked by a giant monster and he and his friends must not only try to escape, but rescue Beth, the woman that he loves. Right now you're probably thinking, "okay, I've seen this movie before. A "monster" (i.e. guy in a rubber suit) walks around kicking over minatures while the actors run around not really doing anything but screaming," but that was not the case in Cloverfield. The star of the film wasn't the monster, it was the story and the human characters.

In the early parts of the movie, Rob is sitting around discussing the mess that he's created between himself and Beth. His brother tells him that (and I'm paraphrasing here) "all that matters in life are moments and who you care about in the world." This sentiment forms the crux of why he and the rest of the characters do what they do and why Director Matt Reeves and Screenwriter Drew Goddard were more interested in drawing the audience in emotionally rather than simply throwing oodles of shots of the monster at them. When Rob, his buddy (and the comic relief) Hud and the rest of his friends are running around ducking falling debris or fighting off the mini - monsters in the subway tunnel, the audience needed to care whether they survived or not. They needed to feel for Rob as he took on the seemingly impossible task of finding and saving Beth. The special effects, along with the Monster itself, were utilized to punctuate the story, not overwhelming it and turn it into something clunky and predictable. Did that last part about the story being central to the film scare you into thinking there's no action? Well it shouldn't, there were plenty of tense moments, action and thrills to go around (however if shaky hand-held camera action makes you queasy, you might not want to watch the film on a full stomach).

In fact, Cloverfield managed to pack more thrills, action, humor and heart in it's hour and fifteen minutes of running time than most $200 million dollar budgeted, cgi - filled summer blockbusters ever could.

Grade: A