So I was able to get into an advanced screening of Cloverfield Tuesday night at The Palms Hotel. Bottom line view is this flick is freaking amazing! However, if you get squeamish or motion sick easily it may not be for you, at least until DVD. If you got sick watching Blair Witch Project...this is Blair Witch x 100. It's 100% handheld shaky cam, only this time the guy recording is swinging around trying to get it all in. The camera rarely lingers on a person or scene for very long.

For the amount of wiz-bang footage the trailers showed, for once it was nothing close to the movie itself. I'm amazed how the trailers got people excited about the flick but gave little away as to real story and final act. Very impressive.

This flick reminds me of M Night Shyamalan's movie Signs. So you know how Signs wasn't really about alien invasion, right? You really don't see the aliens at all except for a few very suspenseful scenes. Cloverfield was made in the same vein. It's not really a "monster movie." Rather, it's a story that happens to take place during a giant monster attack on NYC. It was a decent enough story, and it made sense in all the right spots. I was expecting MTV/Dawsons Creek style smarmy young adult crap, but I was gladly surprised to find almost none of that. Insomuch as everyone is freaking out and upset with rational and irrational decision making there is basically a reason for everything the main characters are doing. No "oh puleeeeease!" moments.

Basically, this flick didn't let me down the way many other high profile flicks have recently. About as unconventional as a big budget hollywood blockbuster can get, I imagine.

Have you seen it yet? Shoot me your own review in comments!