Produced by J.J. Abrams and directed by Matt Reeves (The Batman), CLOVERFIELD debuted in the U.S. on January 18, 2008 and became a smash hit, ultimately earning more than $172 million worldwide on a $25 million budget. The film thrilled critics and audiences alike with its shocking, first-person video account of a horrifying attack on Manhattan by an unknown—and seemingly unstoppable—force.
For thoughts on Cloverfield, please check out our discussion on The Video Attic:
Video Quality
Cloverfield improves on its good looking Blu-Ray with a really solid 4K UHD Blu-Ray upgrade. Anyone familiar with the film will be aware of the found footage aesthetic, so this is obviously not going to be a glossy reference disc, but this new presentation allows the film to look like the best version of itself. While Reeves carefully crafts the look of this film, it was not actually all shot with consumer grade equipment, allowing for a more notable bump in quality than you might expect. This film maintains its intentionally gritty look, but certain scenes really look impressive such as the stable loft setting. Whereas the previous Blu-Ray suffered from clumpier grain, this 4K presentation maintains this texture more efficiently and evenly. The clarity and detail present is greatly improved, exposing details previously lost due to the limitations of the format.
Perhaps the great improvement with this presentation comes from the implementation of Dolby Vision. Everything looks more consistent from the skin tones to the colors of the clothing and within the urban landscape. The shadow gradients look so much more natural than the old Blu-Ray presentation. A great amount of depth is gained with the stronger command of black levels. All of the varying shades within the shadows are handled deftly in this very dark film. Instances of intense whites never give way to blooming or other unsightly occurrences. This 4K UHD transfer brings richness to the movie that you did not know you were lacking until you see it for yourself. The disc is mostly free of compression artifacts and other digital nuisances. This might not be the first disc you pull out to show off your new 4K TV to the common person, but this is a stellar presentation from Paramount that maintains the integrity of the film really well.
Audio Quality
This 4K UHD Blu-Ray comes with a lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track recycled from the Blu-Ray release which still ranks among the strongest on the format. Cloverfield has a lot of great atmospheric effects that engage the surround speakers including location-specific sounds such as an active party, traffic noises, huge explosions and much more in the wave of destruction. Dialogue comes through clear in the front channel without being overwhelmed by any sound effects or score. The track has a good sense of directionality with sounds always emanating from the appropriate channels. The movie is saturated with thrilling moments of chaos, which puts the low end to work quite often. There are no issues with fidelity or damage to the track. This audio presentation is pretty fantastic even without an upgraded audio mix to go along with the video upgrade.
Special Features
Paramount has provided Cloverfield with an optional sleek new SteelBook available widely that is truly lovely in person. The case comes with a removable clear slipcase with a depiction of a camera lens with a headless Statue of Liberty in its sightline. The artwork underneath shows the Cloverfield monster terrorizing the city, and the rear features more imagery of the city on fire. The interior sports a glimpse of the handheld camera scene capturing a scene of our characters in the midst of some action. Video of the SteelBook can be found in the video above. The on-disc content is as follows:
- Audio Commentary: Director Matt Reeves gives a very informative breakdown of the film including how he came to this movie, how they wanted to structure it, providing characterization through improvisation and flashes of moments, why he chose to shoot with certain cameras, working with the actors, the secrecy around the film and more. Reeves rarely lets up in the course of giving his in-depth thoughts.
- Special Investigation Mode: An option to watch the film within a special box that showcases where the action is taking place on a special, facts about the characters and monsters, location insights and more.
- Document 01.18.08 – The Making Of Cloverfield: A nearly 29-minute featurette in which the cast and creative team discuss the larger ideas behind this project, explain the secrecy around the film, take you behind the scenes of certain key moments, showcase some special effects and makeup work, and much more.
- Cloverfield Visual Effects: A 23-minute look at the visual effects used in the movie including the relatively thrifty implementation for this movie, the possibilities that the technology created, how they pulled off certain moments and more.
- I Saw It! It’s Alive! It’s Huge!: A six-minute in-depth look at the creature design including commentary on why certain aesthetic choices were made.
- Clover Fun: A four-minute gag reel of sorts featuring fun moments from the set.
- Deleted Scenes: Four unused scenes totaling nearly four minutes are provided here of small moments from the loft party, brief character moments in the midst of the chaos and more. This is provided with optional audio commentary from Matt Reeves who explains why these scenes were not included.
- Alternate Endings: Two alternate endings totaling nearly five minutes are provided here with optional audio commentary from Matt Reeves who explains why these were not used.
Final Thoughts
Cloverfield remains one of the great examples of the effectiveness of viral marketing and secrecy in raising the anticipation for a film, but that would mean nothing if the film did not deliver. Thankfully, this film delivers and then some as it quickly established itself as one of the greatest examples of the found footage genre done effectively. The pacing is absolutely perfect and the amount of production value the creative team was able to squeeze out of this more reserved budget is impressive. Paramount Home Entertainment has provided a 4K UHD Blu-Ray that offers a strong upgrade in the A/V department along with all of the legacy extras. In honor of the film’s 15th anniversary, you can now pick up a Limited Edition SteelBook that is quite nice in person. If you are a fan of the film and do not own it on 4K, it is worth springing for this release. Highly Recommended
Cloverfield is currently available to purchase on 4K UHD Blu-Ray SteelBook and Digital.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the 4K UHD Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: Paramount Home Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
