The quick and dirty explanation of Cloverfield would be Blair Witch Project meets Godzilla. Think of any Godzilla-esque giant monster film where you see the events from the point of view of the military or scientists trying to stop the attack. Well, Cloverfield puts you on the ground level in the perspective of the people running away from the creature.
At a going away party for his best friend Rob (Michael Stahl-David), Hud (T.J. Miller) has been asked to go around with the video camera and document the night. When a friend of theirs, Marlena (Jessica Lucas), shows up, Hud and several of the guests find out that these long-time buddies recently slept together and spent a day at Coney Island (the record of which is being taped over by making this film of the evening). When Marlena leaves in a huff, Hud and Rob's brother Jason (Mike Vogel) go to commiserate with him.
However, their talks of the future are interrupted when an explosion rocks New York City and the party moves to the roof of the apartment building to get a better look. That explosion starts the series of events the government will later refer to as Cloverfield. Taken from the point of view of Hud with the camera in hand, you will see the crowd try to cross the Brooklyn Bridge and be herded by the military to supposed safe areas. But when Rob gets a pained call from Marlena, he sets off to find and save her, and of course the rest of his party follows.
Throughout the movie, there are several flitting glimpses of the monster that is ransacking Manhattan, but eventually you will get a few good looks at it (though I liked the mystery and part of me wishes that you didn't get anything more than a glance). When the party takes to the subway tunnels in hopes of getting to Marlena's place, they will encounter some strange creatures that are much smaller than the big beast running amok outside, and these little guys have a killer bite.
While I have heard quite a few reports of the shaky camera causing motion sickness, it seems to be more likely to happen to people who already suffer from it, and not your average viewer. People who might feel bad while watching this movie know who you are ahead of time, so just be careful. At least by not watching it in the theaters, you can always pause the movie and take a break.
Oddly enough, I sort of preferred the DVD version of this movie when you are talking about the film itself (the Blu-ray has better features, but I will talk about that later). I'd say that the high-def quality of the Blu-ray footage makes the film too crisp and clean. Unless Hud is running around with a high-def camcorder, of course. Either way, I preferred the grainier, blurry version of the film a bit more; it makes it feel a little more realistic.
But, if you are going to talk about the overall package, then the special features of the Blu-ray version have the DVD version of Cloverfield beat hands down. My favorite of the features is "Special Investigation Mode", a popup video style feature that frames the movie in a computer console that contains a map and a section for words to come up. The map is of Manhattan, and it shows you where the camera is as well as the known location of the monster. The text area displays information about the "Cloverfield" incident. Here you will get information about the times that events took place, as well as information not revealed in the film (like the fact that the government is now searching for a Japanese scientist who they believe is responsible for the attack). Of course, if you like the mystery behind Cloverfield and don't want to know any of the details unless they are revealed in the movie itself, then this might not be as appealing to you.
Cloverfield is an interesting perspective on the mega-sized movie-monster film that really makes it unique. There is talk of a sequel, if so; I think it would be great if the movie covered the same event, just from the perspective of a different on-street camera toting evacuee.
