My recollection from 16 years ago centers around a time where found footage movies were all the rage. And it was a genre that I didn’t take a shine to. For a variety of reasons.

Cloverfield at least has a good setup for why we have a videographer filming during the events that transpire. Rob is having a going away surprise party and his friend was tasked with documenting it so that he could have something to look back on fondly. At the party, Rob’s ex Elizabeth shows up with a new boyfriend. An argument happens and she leaves. Does anyone care about his relationship issues? Not really, but it does set up the second half of the movie.

In case you didn’t know, this is essentially an attempt by J.J. Abrams to create an American Godzilla. And to a degree he is successful at that. The creature (maybe plural, hard to say) rampaging through Manhattan is a reasonable Godzilla for the U.S. The creature does have a bunch of little alien monsters that dribble off it and cause a ruckus on the ground. Which was needed for tension. A big threat doesn’t really have the personal touch or immediacy of a dog sized threat running the streets eating people. Big boy knocking down buildings and having tanks and soldiers and fighter jets trying to kill him doesn’t give much room for the people side of things to matter.

So Rob and his friends get out on the streets and try to escape from NY (sorry, I couldn’t resist) by heading for a bridge on foot. A phone call from Elizabeth, asking for help as she is hurt and at her apartment, causes Rob to head back into the city. Lucky for him and most of his friends as the creature takes that moment to begin destroying the bridge.

And this is an interesting thing. It seems as though wherever Rob and company go, the creature is right there. Bad luck Rob. There are four in his party going out to rescue Elizabeth, and they know they are heading into certain danger, although to be fair the bridge got knocked down so they had to change plans.

Arriving at her apartment complex though is weird. Because her building is collapsing against the one next to it. The plan of climbing to the top of the “ok” building (60 some stories) and then crossing, descending to her floor (39th floor), retrieving her and going back up, back over, and back down…. That’s a lot of stairs. I collapsed in exhaustion just thinking about doing a total of like 160 flights of stairs! And I was sitting in a chair watching the movie.

The military is planning to raze the city in order to deal with the threat. But somehow the video camera is found by the military. Oh, spoiler alert, it doesn’t end well. And how does the military manage to find a video camera in Central Park buried under an overpass? If they wipe out the city, nothing remains. It is a wasteland.

This movie doesn’t hold up to the disdain I had for it back in 2008, but by the same token it isn’t really good. I wonder if someone who enjoyed it back then would look at it and find it not as good. It is Schrodinger’s Found Footage: Achieving a state of both better than it was and worse than it was. (Would that be a Schrodinger thing?)

As a creature movie it is not bad. As a found footage movie it is fairly meh. As a Godzilla movie it is interesting. What makes it interesting is that we are running around the city trying to survive while the big bad seeks to destroy. I think that part of my liking it more now comes from the Cloverfield Paradox movie. The idea that a future event caused this is a lot of fun in my mind. And that extra story element does elevate things for me.

I’m going to run with a 6 on this. If it had not been for Paradox, it would likely be a 4. Maybe a 5 if I was feeling particularly plucky and generous.