Want a plot summary? It could easily have been pitched as Godzilla meets The Blair With Project. I liked this film. But then, I'm a sucker for the "Giant-Monster-Trashes-City" type of movie. The use of the first person viewpoint throughout the film (via the video camera) and the fact that you never clearly see the monster, makes this a tense, scary movie.
One question, is the monster supposed to be amphibious? (Assuming it's of terrestrial origin.) If so, why hasn't ever been spotted before? Something that big and destructive wouldn't really be able to go unnoticed on land, I wouldn't think. If it's strictly an aquatic creature, how does it survive being out of the water for such extended periods?
Gotta point out, anything as big as the creature is probably wouldn't be able to move as fast as it does, much less walk at all, since its weight should cause its bones to break. And its limbs do not look big enough to support its weight. Much too skinny.
And while I accept Godzilla being indestructible, I have a problem accepting the Cloverfield creature being that way. So much of this movie is gritty and done in such a cinema verite style, that the creature's invulnerability to bombs, while buildings are destroyed by the bombings, rings false to me. That aspect of the creature puts it in the fantasy realm a la Godzilla, rather than the realism the creators shoot for throughout the rest of the movie.
It's amazing the batteries in the camera Hud carries doesn't die out from all the filming he did.
At one point, Rob refers to a tape being in the camera. However, at the being of the flick, a title card informs us the film is from an "Digital SD Card".
Throughout the film, subliminal images of the spider monsters from Them!, the creature from The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms and King Kong can be seen. How'd they get there? Yes, I know director, Matt Reeves put them there. But realistically, they shouldn't be there. Hud was taping over what Rob had filmed - a day when he and Beth went to Coney Island.
"I like to watch." - Chance the Gardener
I remember watching this and noticing that the creature was described as being in one part of Manhattan, and then in a completely different part, nowhere near the first, in what seemed like a short or nonexistent amount of time.
Yeah, that was something else that bothered me. At the end, when Hud dies, the kids are in Central Park. The military is attacking Midtown, presumably because that's where the creature is. Yet the creature somehow got past them and made its way to Central Park. Again, for something that big, it moves incredibly fast. Unless, as some have theorized, there were two creatures.
"I like to watch." - Chauncy Gardiner
I also wonder why the creature only ate part of Hud and ignored Beth and Rob? After taking a bite out of Hud, did it just run away? Why did Beth and Rob stand around while the creature was eating Hud? I'd've been running the minute Hud was in its mouth. Of course, Rob then does the stupid thing and grabs the video camera after Hud's been killed. I'd've left it. Then again, if Rob had left it, we wouldn't have the poignant fairwell scene from Rob and Beth.
It's surprising that Beth didn't bleed to death while she was lying in her apartment impaled by the rebar. I suppose that by the time Lilly, Rob and Hud arrived, the blood would have clotted. But then they pull her out and the blood should have been flowing again. Beth really should've been weaker than she was at any rate. Just from the loss of blood and shock she should have sustained from her injuries.
"I like to watch." - Chance the Gardener
About the creatures being able to cover large distances in a seemingly short amount of time, it was mentioned there may have been more than one of them. I don't recall this in the movie but would that be more plausible?
I don't know if the creature was from Earth and just hibernating in the ocean or was alien but I agree with Benn about it not being indestrucable. The stealths used bunker busting bombs on that thing and those are designed to penetrate like 10 feet of reinforced concrete, if not more, so I find it nearly impossible for a living thing to not be affected by that, especially since the little things could be hurt by normal means and when it was being shot at it sounded like it was getting hurt.
Benn, I think Central Park is arguably part of Midtown.
Really? I'll be the first to admit to being ignorant where New York geography is concerned. All I know is, we see planes fly over the park - past where the creature is - when it eats Hud. And considering how big that thing is and how it's in a clearing, you gotta wonder how they missed seeing it.
The problem with their being more than one "Clover" is the military only refers to one creatures. They never the plural when referring to it. And you would hope the military, the ones chraged with protecting the public against it, would know whether there were one or two of the things. The whole idea that there were two of the monster was fan speculation.
About its invulnerability: I know one guy over at imdb was arguing that because it was alien creature (be it of terrestrial or extraterrestrial origin), who's to say what its skin is made of? But if its skin is dense enough to withstand the assault it endures, that would only make the creature all the more heavier and less likely to move as swiftly as it does, much less support its weight with the scrawny legs it has.
"I like to watch." - Chancy Gardiner
quote:Benn: I also wonder why the creature only ate part of Hud and ignored Beth and Rob? After taking a bite out of Hud, did it just run away?
As the one who operates the camera for the majority of the film, Hud is undoubtedly meant to be the audience's stand-in for Cloverfield. Unfortunately, he's also the most annoying character in the movie, so I can understand it not liking Hud's flavoring. 
Earlier in the film, Marlena mentions seeing the monster eating people. Maybe it thought it was at Baskin-Robbins and was just taking some sample tastes? 
Can I be the one to clear up a possible misconception of the movie, which forced me to skip it while in the theaters?
You do indeed SEE the monster several times, and get a good look at it at 36 minutes, 1 hour 4 minutes, 1 hour 6 minutes, and 1 hour 8 minutes into the movie. And not just an arm or a tail, but a good look at the 300-foot tall monster that would dwarf your average Walmart!
There's plenty of shakey-camera action, too, but alot of it is still enough to follow the action, so if that newspaper or tv reviewer comment kept you away from it originally, I would definitely recommend this movie!
I thought it was very good, well acted, and with plenty of action, with an ending that keeps you guessing.
I also liked Hud and Marlena's joking, while in the crisis, which helped to relieve tension. Loved the comments about Superman and Garfield!
One of the coolest scenes I liked was when Rob was so determined to track down his girl friend, Beth, stomping through New York City street like he could take opn the world, only to stop in his tracks like he ran in to a wall, as he and the others see just how frickin' big the monster is, and it's a couple blocks away! Priceless! One minute he's just a guy that's having a party held for him, and a half hour later his world is upside down and he's two blocks away from a Godzilla-sized monster!
The story shows just what would have been happening, on a personal-point-of-view-from-the-people-stand-point, during your usual Godzilla monster attack, which was sometimes touched upon by the old movies, but not like this, with the panic, confusion, and roadblock after roadblock after roadblock to freedom and escape.
I was a little confused by the size of the Statue of Liberty's head, though. I was under the impression that it was very large (and didn't Wolverine and Sabretooth fight on top of it in the first X-Man movie?), but here it fits snugly in the middle of a 2-lane street, looking like it has the circumference of about 15 feet, about half as big as I thought it was.
There's a trick/fake ending, too, regarding the helicopter, so I'd advise viewers to keep watching, because that's not where it ends, even though I thought it was going to.
The credits take up a very long TEN MINUTES at the end, and it's the only place where orchestral music is used for the entire movie, maintaining a sense of reality for the action.
Maybe somebody can tell me what is heard with just 17 seconds left in the credits. It's sounds like a voice speaking through a distorted radio transmission, but I can't understand what is said, and the subtitles feature doesn't display it, either.
All in all, I'd recommend it.
It's a message played backward. Reversed, it's someone saying "It's still alive."
The creators later confirmed, though, that that massive bombing that takes out our heroes killed the monster, too.
I really don't like found footage movies anymore.
Yeah, Blair Witch was fun, but the concept was run into the ground with those stupid Paranormal Activity movies. I mean why are these idiots filming all the time? They go and eat dinner, they're filming, they go to bed, they're filming, they're going to the bathroom they're filming. Gahhhhhh!
Make it go away.