Todd McCarthy of '' Variety '' called the film an " old-fashioned monster movie dressed up in trendy new threads " , praising the special effects , " nihilistic attitude " and " post-9 / 11 anxiety overlay " , but said , " In the end , it 's not much different from all the marauding creature features that have come before it " . Scott Foundas of '' LA Weekly '' was critical of the film 's use of scenes reminiscent of the September 11 attacks in New York City and called it " cheap and opportunistic " . He suggested that the film was engaging in " stealth " attempts at social commentary and compared this unfavorably to the films of Don Siegel , George A. Romero and Steven Spielberg , saying , " Where those filmmakers all had something meaningful to say about the state of the world and ... human nature , Abrams does n't have much to say about anything " . Manohla Dargis in the '' New York Times '' called the allusions " tacky " , saying , " The images may make you think of the attack , and you may curse the filmmakers for their vulgarity , insensitivity or lack of imagination " , but that " the film is too dumb to offend anything except your intelligence " . She concludes that the film " works as a showcase for impressively realistic-looking special effects , a realism that fails to extend to the scurrying humans whose fates are meant to invoke pity and fear but instead inspire yawns and contempt . " Stephanie Zacharek of ''Salon.com '' calls the film " badly constructed , humorless and emotionally sadistic " , and sums up by saying that the film " takes the trauma of 9/11 and turns it into just another random spectacle at which to point and shoot " . Michael Phillips of the '' Chicago Tribune '' warned that the viewer may feel " queasy " at the references to September 11 , but that " other sequences ... carry a real jolt " and that such tactics were " crude , but undeniably gripping " . He called the film " dumb " , but " quick and dirty and effectively brusque " , concluding that despite it being " a harsher , more demographically calculating brand of fun " , he enjoyed the film . Bruce Paterson of '' Cinephilia '' described the film as " a successful experiment in style but not necessarily a successful story for those who want dramatic closure " . Some critics also pointed out the similarity to the '' Half-Life '' video game series , in particular the " Ant-lion " monsters from '' Half-Life 2 '' , and the constant first-person perspective
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Cloverfield