longtime reader, first time writer. i was at one of the Cloverfield screenings in NYC, and while the EFX and music weren't finished, i don't think the movie was that far off from being complete. anyway, i am a big Lost fan so JJ Abrams' involvement, coupled with the amazing viral marketing campaign they have used to promote the film, had me really fired up about seeing the film. just wanted to preface with that before sharing my thoughts, which i will keep as spoiler free as possible:

regarding the monster:
i don't know how much i want to give away b/c i think people are having a really good time hypothesizing about what the monster is, so let me just say that it's humongous, it's ugly, and you do see it in full view - no blair witch kind of thing going on here. SPOILER TAG i can also confirm the presence of smaller monsters (which look like the uglies from starship troopers kind of) / END SPOILER [put that in black on the website if you can]