I guess opening against nothing but 27 Dresses has its advantages. Cloverfield has opened with $41 million on its opening weekend making the penny pinchers over at Paramount VERY happy. With no other “guy” movies in theaters at the moment, Cloverfield managed to take advantage of its deceptive marketing campaign to score big January numbers.
There was a period of time that I started to wonder if we were going to see another “Snakes on a Plane” scenario where online fans were buzzing about it… but the majority of the non-online movie fans (still the majority) weren’t. It’s nice to see that didn’t happen as Cloverfield is a better movie that Snakes was.
I liked this movie, even after the second viewing (the flaws of the film stand out a lot more upon repeat viewings), and I think everyone should get out there and see it at least once (and only once). But just be aware of 2 things. 1) This movie is NOT about the monster. The monster is in it for about 5 minutes of the film and plays no material part to the movie… he’s just the backdrop to the real story. 2) The shaky handheld camera didn’t bother me at all… but a lot of other people are complaining that it makes them a bit sick, so just be prepared for that when you see it.
As of this posting, Cloverfield currently has a solid 76% over at Rottentomatoes with 90 positive reviews and 26 negative ones.
