With an aggressive marketing campaign, Cloverfield was poised to make a splash on the theatrical scene. Like The Blair Witch Project and Snakes on a Plane before it, the buzz started in earnest on the internet. For a while, the film was simply known as 1-18-08 in cyberspace and clues, theories and plot points were showing up on web sites and being talked about on film forums everywhere.

If you believed the hype, the film eventually known as Cloverfield was destined to be one of the greatest suspense films ever made. Produced by Lost creator J.J. Abrams and written by Lost scribe Drew Goddard, fans of the show had reason to be excited. The amateur trailers circulating around online gave fans reason to hope for an old school monster movie.

Unfortunately. the storyline is recycled from higher quality monster films. Godzilla and It Came from Beneath the Sea possesses better story structure than Cloverfield could ever hope to achieve. The plot of Cloverfield is remarkably simplistic. Some sort of monster attacks New York. That’s it. Its been done before in Godzilla, It Came from Beneath the Sea and countless others. The only thing that makes Cloverfield different from all the rest is, director Matt Reeves makes no effort to explain what the “thing” is, where it came from, or what it wants.

With none of this information, it all seems extraneous and difficult to care about. The human characters aren’t much more interesting. As the film opens, Rob Hawkins (Michael Stahl-David) is relocating to Japan and his friends are throwing him a going away party. Among the party goers are Rob’s brother Jason (Mike Vogel), his best friend Hud (T.J. Miller), and friends Lily (Jessica Lucas) and Marlena (Lizzy Caplan). Suddenly, the building starts to shake. The news claims a tanker has tipped over near the Statue of Liberty. When the head of Lady Liberty rolls down the street, it’s clear a tanker is not responsible for the chaos. What is it?

Rob’s only concern is to get across town and find his girlfriend Beth (Odette Yustman), who left the party earlier. With the monster in full attack mode, all of Rob’s party friends decide they must go with him, even as everyone else is fleeing the city. Sure…

If the farfetched story line still has you intrigued, the camera gimmickry might make you nauseous. In the beginning of the film, Jason asked Hud to film Rob’s party and document everything that happens. Hud takes the job very seriously and even keeps the camera rolling after the monster attacks. The film is basically what we see through his camera. Since Hud is a terrible videographer, the films footage jumps up and down from side to side and has a lot of dizzying cuts and immediate close ups. If the farfetched story line still has you intrigued, the camera gimmickry might make you nauseous. In the beginning of the film, Jason asked Hud to film Rob’s party and document everything that happens. Hud takes the job very seriously and even keeps the camera rolling after the monster attacks. The film is basically what we see through his camera. Since Hud is a terrible videographer, the films footage jumps up and down from side to side and has a lot of dizzying cuts and immediate close ups.

Watching Cloverfield reminds me of that old catchphrase, “Where’s the Beef?” J.J. Abrams and Drew Goddard worked brilliantly together on Lost, but Cloverfield is surprisingly devoid of originality and substance. People run; they scream, they die. There is some blood and some missiles. In the final analysis, Cloverfield lacks a heart. The filmmakers failed to give the story even the slightest sense of sympathy for the characters.

While considering the 4K video quality, its important to remember that the filmmakers used various digital cameras to shoot the film. Most of them were commercial grade with a maximum resolution of 1080. While this is technically considered “high definition,” it’s nowhere near what the best print cameras can produce. This is what gave Cloverfield its “home movie” feel. The film has been cleaned up but maintains its “found footage” look. The blacks are darker, and the details are clearer. This type of film will never match a “traditional” 4K title.

While I would have hoped for a Dolby Atmos track, the included True HD mix is solid. The bass is loud and makes everything seem far more dramatic. The first time the creature entered the scene, I nearly jumped out of my chair. Dialogue is clean, clear and concise. There are no audio hiccups in evidence. Of course, having such effective sound kind of blows the whole documentary style of the film out of the water, but if you can forget that, you’ll enjoy the superior sound.

English, English SDH, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish subtitles are available.

If you’re a fan of steelbooks, this limited-edition is gorgeous and worth a pick-up.

There are no special features on the 4K disc itself, but the included Blu-ray offer an interesting slate of material:

  • Audio Commentary with Director Matt Reeves: This running, screen-specific commentary covers the origins of the project, how he became involved, the cinematography, camera work and more.
  • Document 1.18.08: The Making of Cloverfield (HD, 22:28) A standard EPK.
  • Cloverfield Visual Effects (HD, 22:32) Various crew discuss the visual effects for the film.
  • I Saw It! It’s Alive! It’s Huge! (HD, 5:53) The filmmakers dis the creation of the creature.
  • Clover Fun (3:53) Outtakes from the film.
  • Deleted Scenes: Four in total, titled “Congrats Rob,” “When you’re in Japan,” “I Call That a Date,” and “It’s Going to Hurt,” with optional director commentary.
  • Alternate Endings: Two in total, with optional director commentary.