My wife and I saw Cloverfield last night and it was an enjoyable throwback to old Hollywood spectacles like King Kong, where the film takes the audience to places we'd prefer not to see in real life (but are perfectly happy to watch on the big screen). Overall, the film does a masterful job of creating a realistic yet sensawunda story about a monster attacking New York City. The movie also strikes me as very 21st century, with scenes that people will be playing over and over on their iPods and DVD players as they attempt to figure out more of the story. Big hint: That last scene at Coney Island isn't simply a flashback to happier times in the main characters's lives. Check out what's making a splash in the ocean.
My one criticism is that the jerking and shaking of the handheld camera quickly grows old. When the Blair Witch Project came out, technology was such that the only way to hold a camcorder steady was to use a tripod. Now most camcorders come with built in image stabilizers. Would it have really taxed the directors' imaginations for their characters to have a Canon GL2? I know the audience would have thanked them.