In 2008 Cloverfield came out of nowhere to become a surprise hit. The film took the found footage approach to an alien invasion and found an audience with ease. In 2016 they released the sequel 10 Cloverfield Lane, but left behind the found footage aspect. Unexpectedly they released another entry in the franchise with The Cloverfield Paradox in 2018. Now Paramount is celebrating the 15th anniversary of the original film and releasing an all-new Limited Edition Steelbook on 4K.

​

Cloverfield follows five New Yorkers from the perspective of a hand-held video camera. The movie is exactly the length of a DV Tape and a sub-plot is established by showing bits and pieces of video previously recorded on the tape that is being recorded over. The movie starts as a monster of unknown origin destroys a building. As they go to investigate, parts of the building and the head of the Statue of Liberty come raining down.

 

The movie follows their adventure trying to escape and save a friend, a love interest of the main character. The film featured a great young cast including Mike Vogel, T.J. Miller, Odette Annabel, Jessica Lucas, and Lizzy Caplan. People knew little to nothing about this film when it came out so going in viewers had no idea that they were in for a ride.

​

Despite now knowing where it is going Matt Reeves feature holds up well. The story is pretty simple with the beginning being a throwaway generic set up focusing on these characters drama and relationships. While this is the least interesting part of the film it sets up the group before the city begins to literally start to collapse around them. For the rest of the film it is pretty chaotic with some quick initial glimpses of the creatures on the attack works to perfection.

 

Sure there are questionable moments to why they continue to film 

​

​