There were few films in 2008 that gave me such a rush of
excitement and exhilaration as creature feature Cloverfield. The brain child of J.J. Abrams, Cloverfield follows a group of young New Yorkers as they battle to
survive the onslaught of an unidentified thirty story monster that tears
through the city on a May evening. The production was shrouded in secrecy and a
viral marketing campaign matched that of any film in producing a sense of
confusion and anticipation for the forthcoming movie. The monster’s design
especially was kept a closely guarded secret until the movie was released
theatrically.
Coming back to the movie five years after I initially saw it
and a couple since my last watch, I found that my excitement had dissipated
quite a lot and my interest in the story is much lower than it previously was
but I still thought the movie was a fantastic 80 minutes of animation and
mayhem, topped off by some highly accomplished effects and fantastic creature
design.
