Cloverfield

I'll sum this up: Cloverfield is the defining monster movie of our generation. No "It's alive!". No "It came from Mars!". Just presented as a home video from someone's video camera, it details an attack on New York City, but from a fresh, new storytelling technique. And an unhappy ending. No walk into the sunset, just a realistic end.

The plot...Uh, well, there's this ticked-off monster, who comes out of the ocean, and a group must survive amid ALOT of destruction in NYC. Like the Statue of Liberty's severed head tossed at the streets, and almost to cement the public zeitgeist, people immediately start taking pictures with their cell-phones. It's one of many allusions to 9/11, subtle yet uncompromising.

It's a truly different experience, and with very jerky camerawork. But that's what makes Cloverfield tick. Because of it's realism, it's authenticity. This feels like a credible home video, amid some very cool special effects. And thus I close with what I opened. This is the defining monster movie of our generation. A