Think of Cloverfield as The Blair Witch Project meets Godzilla. The premise is remarkably simple and its success lies not with the intricacies of its story but in how that basic premise is exploited. Through some interesting camera work and editing director Michael Reeves presents a completely unrealistic event as a fairly believable and intimate story of a small group of friends trying to survive.

When the picture starts, a young man named Rob (Michael Stahl-David) is the guest at a going away party being held in his honor. Rob is heading to Japan for work and most of his friends have gathered to send him off in style. One of his pals grabs a camcorder and has various party goers send Rob their best wishes, captured on tape for his memory book. As the party progresses, strange things are happening outside in the streets of Manhattan. It starts when news reports come in of an oil tanker capsized near the Statue of Liberty in the Hudson River. The party guests head out to the roof to take a look at the scene and notice that there are explosions erupting around them. They head downstairs just in time to see something hurl the head of the Statue Of Liberty at them - they wisely take this as their cue to get out of Manhattan as quickly as possible.

While crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, Rob gets a call from the girl he loves. She's trapped in her building and can't move. He, along with the camera man and another friend, Marlena (Lizzy Caplan), decide to go and get her out before it's too late. All the while, a massive monster lays waste to everyone and everything that gets in its path while the Marines do what little they can to stop it.

Like The Blair With Project, or Cannibal Holocaust, Cloverfield pretends to be found footage of an incident not unlike the monster attacks seen in the various Godzilla films made over the years. Thanks to some consistency in the camerawork and some very clever editing tricks, director Matt Reeves pulls this off quite effectively and never once does the film not feel like it is playing out through the lends of a consumer level camcorder. The camera is moving constantly and at times the effect is pretty dizzying but it adds to the effect - if anyone were actually being chased by a monster, odds are pretty good that a tripod would be the last of their concerns.

In one regard, however, Cloverfield can't help but fail. When a film is so reliant on the realism/you are there factor, character development is probably going to be pushed to the side and that's exactly what's happened with this film. There are small attempts to make us care about or get to know a few of the players in the film but they're pretty insignificant and instead we're left with little more than a small group of 'beautiful people.' Everyone here looks like they were yanked out of a WB teen drama and none of the performances are really strong enough that we're left with one single memorable character.

That said, Cloverfield accomplishes what it sets out to do and that's to create some truly exciting suspense. When the first attack comes after a genuinely dull setup that might have more impatient viewers ready to switch off, it hits hard and the film doesn't let up until the end credits hit the screen. While much of the film was shot on a lot at Paramount and in and around Los Angeles, it doubles well for New York thanks to the near seamless integration of plenty of green screen footage. Not all of the CGI is perfect but more often than on the computer generated beasties that square off against our cardboard protagonists are pretty effective.

While the film might borrow from pictures like The Host or Godzilla it is never the less worth a watch. It makes a for a fun popcorn movie and if it's superficial and gimmicky, who cares. As long as we're entertained it shouldn't matter and Cloverfield is certainly that even if it isn't much more.