I'm going to write my personal review of it here...
I thought the movie was going to be like most movies these days: Over advertised and nothing to back it up. I mean, the last movie of this sort was jack black and King Kong. And that just blew. Anyways, onto the review.
The movie starts and you see that's its being filmed in first person by a standard video camera (or at least it's meant to seem that way) During the first part, you start to feel dizzy trying to follow it, and start to wonder if your going to have to deal with it. Maybe it's just because Jason sucks as a camera man, maybe not. I felt relieved when HUD grabs the camera away.
The fact that the story was "taped over" a home video does seem annoying, and sometimes confusing at first, but it turns out to be the greatest technique I have ever seen to both characterize the beth and rob, as well as adding to the well played ending.
When the earthquake first hits, another great technique made the first person camera work possible. The news broadcasts gave us the third person images that we needed to stay in touch with what was going on.
When Jason first dies, I was surprised that his death didn't effect the characters that much. Now, this is either a good thing, showing how people actually react, or just bad acting. Someone else should telll me.
The story goes on, and the monster disappears for awhile, and you start to wonder whether it's going to be like War of the Worlds, and hardly ever see the monster in the movie.
The plot gets pushed on though, by the tarantula things, which was perfect. Something needed to be created to keep the conflict going.
Another thing I loved was the comic relief in the movie. Especially from HUD in the tunnel. It just lightened the mood.
I was completely surprised to find that they killed off everyone at the end of the movie. No other movie does that the way cloverfield does.
Overall, I loved the movie. It's a classic. The fact that it was filmed in it's own perspective and with not-so-big actors gave the movie a personal connection to yourself; like you were sitting on your computer watching youtube. It all added to the realism. I loved the hype as well, as well as the clues left along the way, and the fact that watching the movie was only knowing half of the story. You feel such a personal connection with the characters that at the end, you feel as if you just witnesses the death of your friends. It was awesome.
If you're reading this, you probably saw it, if not, go see it!