I went to see “Cloverfield” yesterday, and here’s my review! As always, I’m going to try to keep it as spoiler-free as possible, especially given the whole secret nature of this film!

I was really excited to go see this film, especially after seeing the now infamous teaser trailer with the Statue of Liberty’s head rolling down a New York street. It looked like a mix between Godzilla (only good) and the Blair Witch Project (which I thought was alright, but could have been improved in several ways) style of filming - everything is shot in a sort of first-person-perspective manner. The question is, would this mix really drag you into the story and feel for the characters more, or would it just be something annoying that would try to distract the audience away from the fact that it’s “just” a simple monster movie?

The story isn’t really the deepest or most complex, but it’s pretty easy to feel for the characters. Nothing really interesting happens in the first 20 minutes or so. As the audience we are just shown what looks like a farewell party for a friend, Rob. During this sequence, we are introduced to many of the characters that will be the centerpiece of the rest of the film, and it actually works surprisingly well. The party really seems quite believeable (even if it does have a few cheesy and over-the-top moments in it). But when the lights suddenly go out in a large part of the city, you are as a viewer immediately thrown into a completely different world. I don’t want to give away too much after this point, as it will remove the awesomeness from some of the scenes. Let’s just say a scene at the Washington bridge connecting Manhattan to the mainland is really one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen in a film. But even though a good story and well-written characters are nice additions, what you really want/need in a good monster flick is a good monster. Let’s just say the monster is pretty damn awesome, and leave it at that.

It’s hard to really say anything about the cinematography or lightning, but the team behind the film have really managed to get a realistic and most-of-all, spontaneous look that really makes it look like they just happened to film some of the amazing stuff you’ll see in a film this year. The visual effects are amazing, and is probably the first time that I’ve been able to come out of the theater and actually say “That looked absolutely real.”. It’s photorealism very close to the level of being a bit frightening. Very, very inspiring! I wonder how much time it actually took to film some of the scenes, since they probably had to be extremely planned beforehand, just in terms of the scale of the scenes and the quality of the vfx.

Another interesting thing is the fact that there’s not a single piece of music (in terms of there being an actual score - there’s several songs being played on radios and whatnot) before the end credits roll. Make sure to stay and listen to the amazing credits music by Michael Giacchino (composer of music in “Lost”, “Alias” and “M:I-3″). It’s really amazing, but on the contrary to what I’ve heard people say, I am pretty glad they left it out of the film itself. The complete lack of music really helps to sell the realism of the whole thing. Not sure what I can say about the sound effects, as they just sounded incredibly real. It felt like you were really there, without overusing the surround channels of the theater in an over-the-top manner. Can’t wait until this is released on home video in late May/early June, I’m sure it’s going to be an amazing film to use both as demo material and as a good film as well (those things don’t often match unfortunantly).

With this film and “I Am Legend” setting the standard so early, I’ve got a feeling that this will be a good year for movies. And now, with the writers’ strike finally being over, I can’t wait to see what new projects are announced soon. Overall, this was incredibly enough way better than “I Am Legend” in a lot of ways. I really found it to be very inspirational in terms of the techniques used in the film. Even if the story sometimes isn’t all that top-notch as the rest of the film, it doesn’t degenerate the overall verdict of the film at all. It really is an amazing achievement, and probably one of the better films I’ve ever seen.

Verdict: 10 out of 10

That’s right, “Zombie Exterminator” is now up in the FXhome.com cinema, so if you’re a FXhome member go over there and comment and/or rate it right now! Link is also added to the film’s page!

“Zombie Exterminator” on FXhome.com

My new film “Zombie Exterminator” is now available to download, both in standard and glorious high definition formats!

Check it out either by downloading it directly from the splash screen, or by visiting the film’s page! It’s 17 minutes and 20 seconds long, and please note that the film includes some pretty graphic violence and a few instances of bad language. I’ve disabled comments in this news post, please post all reactions to the film on it’s page. I’d really love to get some feedback on the film, always fun to hear what you guys and girls have to say! Streaming versions on YouTube and Facebook should be up soon. When they are available, I will update this news post. But now, all that remains is to say:

“It’s time to bust some bloody ass.”

UPDATE: YouTube, Facebook and Google Video streaming links now available from the film’s page. More coming…

UPDATE 2: Streaming version now available! Watch the film directly from the film’s page without having to download it!

Just under 12 hours until “Zombie Exterminator” is released worldwide right here! It’s going to be fun to show the film to all of you, as it’s been a pretty tough project. Tune in later at 18:00 GMT to download it!

I’ll see you all then, take care!