Ultimately a feature-length tease, the movie remarkably insubstantial and uninvolving for something that tries so desperately to live in the moment. Works as a showcase for impressively realistic-looking special effects, a realism that fails to extend to the scurrying humans whose fates are meant to invoke pity and fear but instead inspire yawns and contempt. Cloverfield dvd Maybe we now live in a world where we record the moment first and feel it later. If thats the case, Cloverfield leaves us waiting to feel. Basically, it is a gimmick movie in which the premise is pretty much the entire show. That said, it is perhaps the most sensationally effective gimmick movie to come around since The Blair Witch Project Now that the fanboy hype has cleared, we can see Cloverfield for what it is: borrowed inspiration, trite screenwriting and amateurish acting all in the service of a ballsy idea. Reeves does a masterful job wedding the restricted perspective of Huds lens with CGI glimpses of an already blasted cityscape. This is the gimmicks raw excitement phase — were hooked.