4 gibbles out of 5

Director: Matt Reeves

Cloverfield is about an attack on New York. But the plot takes a backseat to presentation, which is mainly what the film is about. J.J. Abrams smartly became sort of a go-to guy for viral marketing thanks to Lost and, while you go back to movies like Blair Witch for showing how to take advantage of the internet, the entire package of Cloverfield from initial hints to a final viewing were very well done and worthy of appreciation. It also, being a movie, has a better focus than the out of control feeling of Mr. Abrams TV shows.

…And it’s entertaining, and is impressively shot. The film-makers very intelligently decide what to show, how, and when, and it creates an incredible atmosphere for the movie, with a slight theme of “Why are we watching this?” youtubeiness that pervades the entirety. (The shot of the statue of liberty spectators is probably the smartest moment of the picture.)

Unfortunately, thanks to most of the characters being douchey, the movie never quite reaches a human level, and something about New York seems off. So if this first-person experiment was meant to be close to reality, there it fails. Four stars for the amazingness of how this was put together and how it holds up as entertainment. Misses the fifth because you really aren’t too involved with the interior of the movie, more its exterior.