Overall, I love what director Matt Reeves and producer J.J. Abrams put together in this film. Again, I was emotionally burned once with that God-awful Blair Witch Project (never felt so cheated in my life), but I am now redeemed by Cloverfield and it’s justified use of the shaky-camera. Excellent film, excellent set-up and hopefully they find a way to make a sequel. If you don’t see this film, you’re only robbing yourself.
Monster-like presentation
Again, the visuals and audio make this movie work. They are depended on more than the actors. If the camera and audio fail, then the movie becomes the same monster movie we’ve already seen 1,000 times. So, when you see this on DVD and you get it in 5.1 Dolby Digital, you will be so very happy that the DVD format has arrived (would love to see the Blu-ray format soon, I’m sure it will happen soon).
Aside from the great look and feel, you get the following features on this DVD:
| • Commentary: Commentary by Director Matt Reeves
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• Featurette: The Making of Cloverfield
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• Featurette: Cloverfield Visual Effects
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• Featurette: I Saw It! It’s Alive! It’s Huge
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• Featurette: Clover Fun
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• Additional Scenes: Congrats Rob
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• Additional Scenes: When You’re in Japan
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• Additional Scenes: I Call That a Date
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• Additional Scenes: It’s Going to Hurt
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• Additional Scenes: Alt Ending #1
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• Additional Scenes: Alt Ending #2
Okay, to be honest, the alternate endings were a bit of a disappointment. I didn’t see a lot of difference to the ending you get originally in the film. The rest of the features were really good, though. The making of is quite interesting and if you can find the easter eggs, you’ll be happy, they are goofy. Good set of special features though, but I really wish the endings were better.
Clawing its way to the finish…
I like Cloverfield, it was one of the best surprises of 2008 so far. It could have worked in the summer time, but I’m glad it happened in January, it certainly started the year off right. It’s even better on DVD and with some good features, you can’t go wrong.
So, RUN! Don’t walk to your local DVD store, get it for your library.
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