What hath YouTube wrought? In a world where nary a celebrity can leave the house pantsless without a hi-def MPEG appearing minutes later on the Internet, unstoppable über-producer J.J. Abrams has crafted a good old fashioned monster movie (he out-Godzillas that awful remake of "Godzilla") for this YouGeneration. Where other monster movies ("King Kong", "Godzilla", "King Kong vs. Godzilla") are told with an omniscient camera, able to see the creature from all angles, Mr. Abrams' "Cloverfield" - a spoiler-defying codename which became the film's actual moniker - dispenses with that option, opting to tell its tale from the vantage point of a single handheld camera (though it finds a few clever workarounds). Sounds like a gimmick, doesn't it? Well, it is. But it's a gimmick that's executed ingeniously by director Matt Reeves (of Mr. Abrams' "Felicity"). It may not be a scary movie, but it's downright impressive.  

The film opens with an almost creepily personal scene as Rob and Beth (the appropriately photogenic Michael Stahl-David and Odette Yustman) enjoy a bit of post-coital cuddling in front of Rob's camcorder lens. It turns out, thanks to a well-placed date-stamp, that this is older footage which is about to be taped-over by the main event: a surprise going-away party for Rob. It seems Rob has just been promoted to Vice President of some unnamed company, and he is being shipped off to Japan (the film's one nod to those classic guy-in-a-suit monster flicks). His friends have gathered in a beautiful exposed-brick loft in downtown Manhattan to bid him sayonara.  These opening minutes, which could be culled from a WB broadcast of one of Mr. Abrams' own shows, serves to setup the film's main characters, and it's a tribute to the slick script by Drew Goddard (another longtime Abrams collaborator) that these scenes aren't as throwaway as they could have been. You see, the party takes place several weeks after that opening footage, and Rob and Beth are no longer together. In fact, Beth shows up to the party with some other bland pretty-boy in tow. Awkward! No sooner does Rob realize his love for Beth than New York City is rocked by what feels like an earthquake. The lights blackout, then return. People scream. The news is turned on. Terrorism is mentioned. The usual. Then, something moves behind a skyscraper. Something huge and CGI-y. No, it's not a giant lizard, but it might as well be.  

Say what you want about J.J. Abrams, the man knows how to entertain. In his feature film directorial debut - the unfairly-maligned "Mission: Impossible III", starring the fairly-maligned Tom Cruise - he created one of the most memorable acrophobic sequences in recent memory. With "Cloverfield" (which he produced), he stages an entire monster movie from street level, thanks to Rob's intrepid friend Hud (T.J. Miller) who keeps "documenting" in the midst of unbelievable peril. But this is just one of the many disbelief-suspenders required to enjoy the film. If "The Blair Witch Project" was, as my friend once described it, "the imagination's revenge on special effects", then surely "Cloverfield" is their love child. The irony is, there's enough good monster movie material here that the camcorder gimmick really isn't necessary. For once Mr. Abrams may have actually outsmarted himself.  

One note about the destruction in the film. I'm not usually offended by New York-based disaster movies. I was even okay with 2004's "The Day After Tomorrow". But I have to remark that the initial monster attack in "Cloverfield" borders on uncomfortably poor taste. Just because we now know how it looks when a building collapses in Manhattan doesn't mean we need to see it in a popcorn movie. Just once I'd like these filmmakers to leave my poor city alone. That said, the flying head of the Statue of Liberty and the night-vision walk through the subway tunnels are good, clean fun. New Yorkers in the audience will also marvel at the ground these kids are able to traverse in the film. A monster in midtown? Ok, I'll buy it. But walk underground from Spring St to 59th? That's just silly.