Behold, the long belated Cloverfield full movie review is upon you. Sorta. The review, turns out, is running rather long given the length of my discussion prior to even talking about the movie proper. As such, I'm posting this which is essentially a pre-review article. Or think of it as the Cloverfield Movie Review - Part One.

For those of you living under a rock, Cloverfield was the event movie of 2008. Ever since the trailer premiered in front of Transformers the summer before, the internet was abuzz about this untitled project due out on 1-18-08. Rumors ran rampant that the next American Godzilla movie was coming, while others swore that Voltron was finally getting the modern treatment it deserved. Still others thought that a character in the trailer had exclaimed "It's a lion!" and appropriate giant animal theories were abound. My personal hope was that a Cthulu movie was finally upon us.

Turns out everyone was wrong.

Clover was what we got. And just what is Clover? Outside of the best damn original monster design to come along in fifteen years, damned if I know. It's not a mutated fish or a giant bird. It's not a dinosaur and its certainly not some overgrown iguana (looking at you, GINO). Clover is simply amazing.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. What about Cloverfield, the film? Most of you are probably aware of the film in some way or another, even if you have no interest in the kaiju genre. If nothing else, you're probably aware that the film was recorded on home video cameras and is presented in a first person perspective. This is a technique that can be quite divisive, usually you either love it or you hate it. If you are especially prone to motion sickness, this movie might not be best viewed on a full stomach. I myself have no objections to the use of the perspective, although it does lead to a few logic errors I'll discuss more later on.

For this review I'm going to do my best to separate out Cloverfield the movie from Cloverfield the experience. You have to understand that Cloverfield was no doubt an event picture. The lead up to the movie had astronomical levels of hype attached to it. Amazing in the modern internet age, the monster design was kept a secret all the way up to opening weekend screenings. I myself was sucked into the hype machine, attended opening weekend, and was blown away by the roller coaster ride that followed. Now, four months later, I'm curious to see if my extreme positive reaction was a result of viewing a phenomenal movie or if I was just buying into the hype.

Stay tuned for Cloverfield: Movie Review- Part 2!