"Cloverfield" review

Honestly, at first I rolled my eyes at the opening scenes that reminded me of the fake parties that you see on shows like "Gossip Girl", "Buffy", or that type of vein... your older teens and young yups dressed to the nines being very pretencious and beautiful. But then....the fun starts and as the big monster event started to occur, it grabbed my attention until the end. To enjoy this movie, you must suspend belief in reality- not just because there is a vague alien/water/bat monster terrorizing New York, but also because this is one of the movies where it's too easy to armchair quarterback. However, the writers are good enough to acknowledge that is the whole fun of these type of fast-paced action horror flicks, and they throw a few good bones of surprise to keep you interested. Of course, there were some parts that got predictable, and the stereotypes where there, including the quasi-jerk who gets killed right away. I was caught up in the docu-style first person filming (Blair Witch did so well) that although may be old news now, is done well in this movie. All the action is happening in present time, and like real-life, some of the action is hidden, thus rendering the main characters helpless and very very scared. The acting was pretty good for unknowns, and the plot was plausible as far as the military response, and the overall craziness of us humans being terrorized by multiplying monsters the size of tall buildings. Not being a big fan of the corny "monster" movies like Godzilla, I was glad that the writing was good enough that you could take the action seriously without it being too campy. If I want campy, I'll watch Peter Jackson's version of "King Kong"- love Jackson but that movie was so overblown and had none of the subtleties of the LOTR trilogy, and the monsters that were a big part of those action scenes. So.... in the end, "Cloverfield" was entertaining, fun to watch, scary, and unforgettable. It's not one I'll watch again soon, simply because a movie like that, with an ending like that, plays out in such definitive terms that I'm just not curious about it anymore. There are loose ends to be sure, and lots of questions at the finale, but I am pretty sure I didn't miss any of the small breadcrumbs of clues along the way. That's a good thing - to leave the viewer going "wow" at the end, and knowing there is no other ending that would make sense.