DVD review (region 1 & 2)
Directed by Matt Reeves
Starring Michael Stahl-David, T.J. Miller, Jessica Lucas, Lizzy Caplan
Release date 22 April 2008 (region 1); 9 June 2008 (region 2)

A marauding creature causes havoc in New York as a group of partygoers make their escape…

For such a brief film, Cloverfield takes a surprisingly long time to get started as a group of rather tedious New York yuppies attend a leaving party for one of their bland number. It’s a sequence that doesn’t really work; this is a monster movie, get to the action! The use of a camcorder as a means of putting the audience into the heart of the story fails to properly introduce the characters and we certainly don’t care much for them. It’s like being at a party with people you don’t know and don’t like.

Luckily things pick up when a huge, unexplained creature beats the shit out of New York. The first person narrative device perfectly captures the confusion caused by the attack. Strangely enough, while the camera points all over the place (although rarely at the monster) the action never becomes confusing or hard to follow.

It’s nice to see a monster movie that features a truly unstoppable creature. The characters don’t suddenly come up with a way to defeat the monster; merely surviving is the order of the day. A weird coda raises further questions as to the origins of the beast (look top right), but Cloverfield is more of an experience than a plot-driven narrative.

However, while the camcorder is an excellent storytelling device, it does sometimes feel forced. Would you carry on filming when chased by a gigantic monster and its smaller, but no less deadly, offspring? How about when taking part in a rescue in a collapsing tower block? Cloverfield is truly a film of the Youtube generation.

Whether this movie will live on to be as fondly remembered as the original Godzilla or King Kong remains to be seen. But even if Cloverfield is the kind of movie that you can only truly enjoy once, its a hell of a ride.

The movie is as enjoyable on DVD as it was on its cinematic debut, but the somewhat half-hearted selection of extras don’t add much to the overall experience. Even the alternative endings seeming to offer the same conclusion as the movie itself. Jonathan Wilkins

VERDICT: 8/10
A slow start gives way to a gripping and exciting creature feature.

Click here to read the original cinema review.