Film Review: Cloverfield
I know what you're thinking - why watch something so patently awful as the bastard child of Blair Witch, Godzilla, Alien and post-9/11 anxiety? I certainly didn't want to. I headed to the cinema thinking I'd catch 3.10 to Yuma, but found I'd missed that train.
So Cloverfield it was. And though you need all your reserves of patience to sit through the mawkish introduction (guy loves girl, guy loses girl, improbably attractive people mingle in the background), it does pay off. While contrived, the intro lures you into a false sense of security so that the big ham fist of the second act can deal a satisfying (sucker) punch.
Perhaps Cloverfield owes more to first-person computer games than to Blair Witch. The handheld camera - nowhere near as choppy as BW - works rather well, allowing the actors to talk to the audience rather than over it, and is only just shaky enough to create the illusion that you might be the one holding it.
The game feel persists in the viral marketing campaign, which has challenged geeks around the world to uncover the disaster's inception from obscure references in the sites of soft drink vendors, Japanese mega-corporations and from faux-thentic newsreels . I completely missed/ignored this promotion drive, which probably says a great deal about my age, but the net is wide and insidious, and is really rather silly fun.
People have picked at holes in the film's logic. Sure, there are plenty, starting with the crystal clear THX sound that the handicam manages to record. Not to mention the fact that the camera manages to survive at all (I'll spare you the spoilers). However, it doesn't matter in the slightest that the monster is never explained; confusion is the key to panic in the real world, and not knowing makes it seem more authentic. Godzilla (1998), for example, was ruined by a half-baked idea to blame it all on the French. Danny Boyle's recent contribution to the space-evil genre, Sunshine, started off as a brilliant psychological drama, only to collapse under an unscary monster and a ludicrous quasi-spiritual ending (only Kubrick could do that - everyone else should keep their clappers off). Let's not even start on Independence Day. In Cloverfield, it's refreshing to see that
Naturally the military try to pump it full of lead before deciding to nuke it, like they do in real life. It doesn't work, like in real life.
So is Cloverfield corny? Maize oui. But it's popcorn that's well-buttered. The sequences are well-timed and exciting, the actors competently channel despair, shell-shock and excruciating pain, and the scenario is disturbing enough that you come out of the cinema feeling just a little off-kilter. For disaster films, the devil is in the details. Cloverfield is chock-full of well-executed set-pieces. Make no mistake, this is supremely manipulative movie-making. Like a roller-coaster, it's designed to milk its riders of screams. But in forcing you to question your mortality, it makes you a little glad to be alive.
I couldn't help thinking the monster was the 'star-spawn' of Cthulhu...
http://dreamlandtoyworks.com/my_little_cthulhu.html ...
nuff said
P.S. This is a great movie to go to with buddies. It's also a great date movie. When you come out of the cinema, you will probably want to hug the person next to you... or at least, indulge in some slightly mushy buddy-bonding. "If a big ugly thing flattened our city, and I like, called you up to say I was trapped, would you come back for me?" "I totally would, man."
Do not attempt to watch this alone, unless you feel inclined to cathartic blogging the next day.
So Cloverfield it was. And though you need all your reserves of patience to sit through the mawkish introduction (guy loves girl, guy loses girl, improbably attractive people mingle in the background), it does pay off. While contrived, the intro lures you into a false sense of security so that the big ham fist of the second act can deal a satisfying (sucker) punch.
Perhaps Cloverfield owes more to first-person computer games than to Blair Witch. The handheld camera - nowhere near as choppy as BW - works rather well, allowing the actors to talk to the audience rather than over it, and is only just shaky enough to create the illusion that you might be the one holding it.
The game feel persists in the viral marketing campaign, which has challenged geeks around the world to uncover the disaster's inception from obscure references in the sites of soft drink vendors, Japanese mega-corporations and from faux-thentic newsreels . I completely missed/ignored this promotion drive, which probably says a great deal about my age, but the net is wide and insidious, and is really rather silly fun.
People have picked at holes in the film's logic. Sure, there are plenty, starting with the crystal clear THX sound that the handicam manages to record. Not to mention the fact that the camera manages to survive at all (I'll spare you the spoilers). However, it doesn't matter in the slightest that the monster is never explained; confusion is the key to panic in the real world, and not knowing makes it seem more authentic. Godzilla (1998), for example, was ruined by a half-baked idea to blame it all on the French. Danny Boyle's recent contribution to the space-evil genre, Sunshine, started off as a brilliant psychological drama, only to collapse under an unscary monster and a ludicrous quasi-spiritual ending (only Kubrick could do that - everyone else should keep their clappers off). Let's not even start on Independence Day. In Cloverfield, it's refreshing to see that
- noone knows where the damn thing came from,
- noone knows what it's doing,
- how it's doing it, and
- how we're going to stop it doing the damn thing it's doing. [/credits roll]
- how it's doing it, and
Naturally the military try to pump it full of lead before deciding to nuke it, like they do in real life. It doesn't work, like in real life.
So is Cloverfield corny? Maize oui. But it's popcorn that's well-buttered. The sequences are well-timed and exciting, the actors competently channel despair, shell-shock and excruciating pain, and the scenario is disturbing enough that you come out of the cinema feeling just a little off-kilter. For disaster films, the devil is in the details. Cloverfield is chock-full of well-executed set-pieces. Make no mistake, this is supremely manipulative movie-making. Like a roller-coaster, it's designed to milk its riders of screams. But in forcing you to question your mortality, it makes you a little glad to be alive.
I couldn't help thinking the monster was the 'star-spawn' of Cthulhu...
http://dreamlandtoyworks.com/my_little_cthulhu.html ...
nuff said
P.S. This is a great movie to go to with buddies. It's also a great date movie. When you come out of the cinema, you will probably want to hug the person next to you... or at least, indulge in some slightly mushy buddy-bonding. "If a big ugly thing flattened our city, and I like, called you up to say I was trapped, would you come back for me?" "I totally would, man."
Do not attempt to watch this alone, unless you feel inclined to cathartic blogging the next day.