Rachel and I saw Cloverfield on Friday. It wasn’t planned, in fact I didn’t have a whole lot of desire to see it at least not until I heard everyone’s reaction. That being said my friend Brian called and begged us to go (read: asked if I want to see it) so naturally I didn’t want to disappoint.

Cloverfield was awesome. I thought the hand held cameras would distract you from the storyline and takeaway from the overall movie. It had the exact opposite effect. The movie simply couldn’t have worked as a regularly filmed movie, at least not successfully. The reason it worked so well is the home movie added a very personal touch. In the beginning you laughed with the characters and in the end you cried with them all because you felt you were watching your best friend’s Youtube video. The movie also portrays our current generations desire to document everything and J. J. Abrams doesn’t hide that this was part of his motivation for the movie style.

I haven’t been a fan of a movie’s ending in quite a while but Cloverfield’s ending is the only way I can imagine it. That’s not to say it doesn’t leave you with a sense of ‘WTF’ and ‘damn I hope they don’t make a sequal’ but it works regardless.

If you haven’t seen the trailer I’ve embedded it for your viewing pleasure below.

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