Cloverfield is an action sci-fi movie that was put out into U.S. theatres on January 18, 2008.
It starred Michael Stahl-David as the main character, Robert Hawkins. Other actors in it were T.J. Miller as Hudson Platt, Jessica Lucas as Lily Ford, Odette Yustman as Elizabeth Mcintyre, Lizzy Caplan as Marlena Diamons, and Mike Vogel as Jason Hawkins. The production company for Cloverfield is Bad Robot. The director of Cloverfield is Matt Reeves and the producer is J.J. Abrams. The plot of the story is that during Robert Hawkins (Stahl-David), a giant monster attacks the island of Manhattan. Robert and his friends must make it through the torn island and try to get out alive.
It started with Jason Hawkins giving his camera to his friend, Hudson Platt who was to then go around an interview people. Rob gets mad when his crush comes with another girl and goes outside to calm himself down with Jason and Hudson. They see an explosion in the distance and run downstairs only to almost be crushed by the decapitated statue of liberty's head. They go to cross the Brooklyn Bridge, but one of the monster's tentacles crashes down on the bridge and kills Jason. The rest of the group, Rob, Marlena, Hudson, and Lily, run off and into the military and almost get crushed by the monster. They travel into a subway where Marlena gets bitten by one of the monster's parasites and they run up into a Bloomingdales, where soldiers take Marlena into a tent and she seems to explode. One soldier tells the remaining group how to get to Elizabeth Mcintyre's house, as Robert wants to find her, and when to get on the next helicopter. They rescue Beth and make it over to the helicopters. Lily gets on a helicopter alone and the other part of the group gets on one. They monster seems to be killed by bombs as the group's helicopter flies past it, but it leaps at the helicopter and hits it. The helicopter crashes and Hudson, Robert, and Beth meet up with the monster who then kills Hudson. Robert takes the camera and Beth go under a bridge, just as the military begins its hammer down operation. The camera then shuts off.
The movie was mostly unknown when it first hit theatres in its mysterious trailers. This stirred up hype, and everyone was soon wondering what this movie Cloverfield was all about. This was a smart move on the side of the Cloverfield team because it drew in more viewers. The special effects in this movie were all pretty neat, such as the head of the statue of liberty when it comes falling out of the sky, and the monster itself. Many aspects of its special effects were well put together. Some parts, like the scene where the soldier's chest is torn up, were not that good. The soldier's chest looked somewhat plastic, and pretty fake. The actors in Cloverfield were well played for the most part.Odette Yustman, Elizabeth Mcintyre, wasn't all that well played. Her part was to be Robert's crush and a new tag-a-long that the group saves, but she seemed more like a drama queen, as she mostly put her emotions in the sad parts. This was the only real acting flaw though, and Hud's humor did give in a couple of laughs her and there, as he tried to get a chat started with Marlena. It wasn't a humor movie though, so that sometimes got in the way, as it was more of an action / horror movie. The believability of some things like this happening is definitely at a 0% chance level. The realization was good though, as it was shot in a home-video style, which made you seem like you were in it.
Cloverfield's plot was well thought out, although the trip to Beth's just seemed as a scene to pack in a few minutes and show off the creature's parasites. The end was also kind of sudden, with the helicopter just crashing and then having the military bomb the place. They could have done more with the ending. The advertising was also well done. The Cloverfield team made a site for the fictional drink Slusho! Created by the producer, and people who put their e-mail on this site received sonar images of a large mass moving towards Manahattan. Another site, 1-18-08.com, had pictures of some of the events before the Cloverfield attack happened. The trailer also set people up and made them want to know what it was about. Overall, Cloverfield is a good movie with cool special effects and a good story, but if you get motion sickness, watch this with caution.
