Kaiju Movie Review: Cloverfield

I hate to start off my kaiju film reviews with a non-Japanese movie, but it is the most recent Kaiju movie I've seen since making this site.

Cloverfield
(2008)
7/10

This was by far the most unique take on the genre I have seen so far, focusing almost entirely on the people, yet the kaiju play no small role. Even though this wasn’t about the kaiju, and the kaiju remain unnamed, I wasn’t left unsatisfied with how they handled the monsters. They were threatening, scary, made me feel dread, and had good action on screen.

My main critique is that the monsters weren’t that original. This was very reminiscent of Godzilla ‘98, and by extension, Jurassic Park. But again, this is a movie about people, not monsters. And the people made up for it for sure. This had great character writing and development, and it made me care about the main characters, even if they weren’t always likable at times. I loved the journey we got to watch them take, and the way they were forced to solve problems.

I do think they had a bit too much plot armor for too long, especially when attacked by the small monsters. I think the biggest issue is that they didn’t react a whole lot to people dying in front of them, especially people they love. Was it shock? Maybe, but it felt like no one cried for way too long. Maybe Rob’s reaction made sense for that one death early on due to shock, but I didn’t find most reactions believable.

I did love the found footage style of this movie, it added to the realism and made some shots more terrifying. I got goosebumps at the sight of Lady Liberty’s decapitated head. I imagine kaiju movies from Japan are much scarier if you live there, because seeing that and the Chrysler tower collapse really hit hard. It’s a great movie, very different from other kaiju movies I’ve seen, and I will probably watch it again.

2024/12/3