Cloverfield

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Horrorphile - January 2008

Cloverfield

January 24th 2008 02:18

I do like a good monster flick. To be more precise I’m partial to a big monster movie. Cloverfield (2008) has a pretty big monster; in fact, it would probably rate as one of the very biggest monsters to ever grace the silver screen, although to be more realistic grace is far from being one of the monsters attributes. This leviathan is about letting loose foghorn roars and bringing skyscrapers down.

Directed by unknown Matt Reeves, but conceived and produced by mate J.J. Abrams (the creator of television’s hugely popular Lost series, and also the man behind the big screen re-boot of Star Trek due at the end of the year), Cloverfield is nothing new, well, certainly not in the premise department: enormous beast emerges from the Manhattan harbour, capsizing a tanker in the process, and then proceeds to cut a trail of urban destruction through downtown New York City eventually ending up in Central Park.

WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS!

A massive explosion rocks lower Manhattan

A small group of Gen Y’s is caught in the chaos and also ends up in Central Park, but not before witnessing the ground zero horror and seeking shelter in the subway where they are pursued by terrifying insect-like ecto-parasites which have fallen off the massive host creature and are set on chowing down on any human victims they can get their spindly talons into.

Not long later Lady Liberty's head comes crashing down the street

It’s Godzilla meets Aliens meets The Day After Tomorrow. Much, much better than the Toby Emmerich’s Godzilla remake or his end of the world disaster flick, but certainly no match for James Cameron’s cult classic Aliens (but then that almost goes without saying, as there would be very few movies that could challenge Aliens in the science fiction/action stakes. The only ones that come to mind are RoboCop and Starship Troopers, but I digress).

What does make Cloverfield interesting - and this is a crucial element – is the visual technique in which the movie is directed. The entire movie takes place almost in real time; well about seven hours compacted into about 75 minutes. Not the first time I movie takes place in real time, I know, but to add a heightened sense of realism the cinematography is from the point of view of one of the characters digi-cam, for the duration of the movie. Not once do we get a so-called “eye of God” perspective.

Marlena (Lizzy Caplan) caught in the chaos

This bold move by the director means that the editing has to be very important, or continuity goes out the window. At movie’s start a series of slides describe that the military have recovered video camera footage at the site that was Central Park. This narrative contrivance suggests that what the audience are about to see has in fact already happened and the video footage is now military-owned archival evidence (there is a continuity error though, the government slides at the beginning of the movie state the footage was recovered from an SD memory card, yet several times during the movie characters refer to the camera using tape). The character Hud (T.J. Miller) turns the camera on and off throughout the movie, so theoretically the saved battery power enabled the roughly 75 minutes of action to be caught.

A very dangerous highrise rescue

The other element that the video camera POV heightens is movement. There is a lot of fast camera movement, with characters and action often only partially in frame. This is a point of contention that will polarize audiences; some will embrace this cinema verite technique as it brings a sense of urgency and immediacy, while others, especially those prone to motion sickness, will find it very tough going.

Cloverfield Jessica Lucas, Lizzy Caplan, Michael Stahl-David and T.J. Miller

Lily (Jessica Lucas), Marlena, Rob (Michael Stahl-David) and Hud (T.J. Miller) in a moment's reprieve

It also means that the monster is more often than not only glimpsed at, since Hud only gets close enough a few times to actually get decent footage of the beast. However in Central Park he gets closer than he bargained for. Some people have criticized the movie for not showing enough of the monster, but I beg to differ. The less we see of it, the scarier it looms. He can hear it, and we can see the damage its doing, and that in itself is frightening. Of course the monster, even the movie’s overall premise; Manhattan being destroyed by an alien (read: foreigner), is an allegory for 9/11. There’s even a sequence early on which has the art deco Woolworth Building crashing to the ground producing a huge wave of concrete and steel dust that sweeps through the street turning day into night (this is actually one of the movie’s best scenes, as the main characters hide in a store, while one character keeps repeating “Did you see it?! Did you see it?! Oh my God, did you see it?! It’s alive! It’s huge!”)

The other two stand-out sequences, and this first one rates high in my horror books, is when Rob (Michael Stahl-David), Marlena (Lizzy Caplan), Lily (Jessica Lucas) and Hud are attempting to travel between stations in the abandoned subway system and they hear strange noises. Hud puts his video camera on night vision and much to his horror sees that several of the large beastly parasites are behind them closing in at a rapid rate. Ugh!

There’s a rescue sequence where (rather unwisely, and probably not the most plausible thing any young person would risk their lives to do) the group enter a skyscraper apartment block which another apartment block, partially collapsed, has fallen against in an effort to save Rob’s girlfriend Beth (Odette Yustman) who is trapped in the collapsed tower block (they cross over at the point where the two buildings meet). Yeah, pretty far-fetched, but hey, it works well visually and as a sequence of extended jeopardy.

Cloverfield Michael Stahl-David, Odette Yustman

Rob and Beth hiding in Central Park

Performances are fine, but there is a little too much “dysfunctional romantic” sub-plot going on for my liking, which is laboriously set up during the movie’s first twenty or minutes. None of it is really needed. Also screenwriter Drew Goddard keeps a few “downbeat” twists which aren’t a trend in Hollywood movies. Had the fate of certain characters been different, I’d probably have trashed this movie out big time.

Instead I definitely recommend Cloverfield to be watched on the big screen with big sound. Mind you, if you’re planning on waiting until it gets a DVD release, on the small screen the camerawork won’t be quite as overwhelming, which may make the movie a little easier to watch for those with extreme motion sensitivity. Go the big screen, it’s worth the demands it makes. But the title? An allusion of reverse psychology methinks.

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

8 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Damo

January 24th 2008 03:36

Yes I agree the Godzilla remake did suck.

Starship Trooper should have sucked but for some reason it worked really well. Starship Troopers 2? Under budget, unrefined unscary and Unwatchable.

I hope to catch Cloverfield soon.
It sounds good.

Comment by charles

January 24th 2008 03:38

ZCars
Ponderous

Great review as per usual, Bryn.

What you said about motion sickness is so damn true - I saw the trailer at the cinema a few weeks ago and almost puked! Goddamnit! *LOL*

Comment by Cibbuano

January 24th 2008 03:56

Hunt Famous
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Fat Cult
Techbreak

Good review, Bryn...

I definitely liked the gimmick of using a handheld camera... the monster was definitely terrifying that way, until the end in the park, which was too ridiculous, I thought (The monster snuck up on them?)

Did you think the beginning was too long? I enjoyed the disarming effect, especially knowing what was coming.

If only we liked the characters a bit more... good choice, though, not using A-list actors.

Read my Review of Cloverfield, too

Comment by Bryn

January 24th 2008 05:52

Horrorphile

Damo, yes Starship Troopers is such graituitous shameless fun!!

Charles, well if the trailer was too much for you, I'd steer well clear of the movie!!

Cibby, yeah, you're right, it snuck up on them! Ha! I guess knowing what we know, the opening twenty minutes does provide some tension ... Imagine watching the movie knowing absolutely nothing!! That would be way cool!!!
To be honest, the characters didn't annoy me nearly as much as some movies' characters do ...

Comment by KylieW

January 24th 2008 06:36

Celebrity Obsession

Bryn,

Oh, good review. I'm glad that this film didnt disapoint you. I'm definitely going to go see this.

And did I hear someone say Starship Troopers??? Awesome movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kylie

Comment by Bryn

January 24th 2008 23:31

Horrorphile

Kylie, yeah, grab some mates, it's a supertrash blast on the big screen, don't expect brilliance, but it rocks sufficiently.
And yeah, Starship Troopers. We like that.

Comment by Harry

January 25th 2008 01:53

Sydney Diary
Personals
Brisbane Diarystar
Zoo Parent

Speaking of Starship Troopers -- did anyone else think that the mini-monsters were a lot like the insects out of SST?

Comment by Bryn

January 28th 2008 06:38

Horrorphile

Harry, yeah, I did think that .... hmmmm.

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