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Title: Cloverfield
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Ever since we saw the teaser trailer for this film, “Cloverfield” has been something we’ve been waiting to see. More for curiosity then because the movie looked genuinely good, but hey, you have to admit that we haven’t seen an advertising campaign like this in a long time. Imagine, an advertising campaign that made you WANT to see the movie! Gee, wonder why this movie did so well at the box office? Think Hollywood: What can we learn from this film? Anyway, despite all the hype and curiosity this film has garnered, it’s not a great film. What it is is a great representation of the monster genre. A movie that targets a niche market, but is made well enough that it sheds some light on what the appeal to the genre is in the first place, and it doesn’t make fans of the genre feel dumb for watching it.
“Godzilla” this is not, and the movie is better off for it. What the producers did to make their film unique to know that we don’t go to these movies to be intellectually involved, we go to be entertained. So out goes the story, out goes the motivations, and out goes the history of why the monster is created. There are only two things you need to know: The characters are having a going away party, and a monster starts attacking the town, therefor rudely interrupting the characters fun. There, what else do you need to know? I guess I could tell you that the movie is filmed from a digital camera, that shakes and wobbles as if the person holding the camera has never held a camera before. The result may make those with queasy stomachs nauseous with motion sickness, so you might want to keep that in mind before seeing this movie in a theater.
If there is an annoyance to be had in the film, a real annoyance, then I think it would be the motivation. Basically, the main character decides he’s going to go deep into the city and save his girlfriend. The rest of the friends, as well as the camera, follow him. At some point you’d think they’d give up after little monsters pop up, military response fails to prove effective, and the bridge falls down. When they actually get to the girlfriends apartment complex they find it leaning on another building, and the main character decides he’s going to go up there anyway. I know the movie needs to reach an eighty minute point, but this quest seems more and more crazy the longer it goes on.
Even though this is a monster movie, the characters should have enough sense to know that the likelihood of succeeding in this quest puts the whole team at risk for a cause that seems doomed from the start. Ah, but now I’m contradicting my own advice. There is very little reason to care about the story, only the action. And what action there is, well it’s very effective. Very intense and very scary at times. This is a movie you’ll want to see in a theater, for no other reason then for the audience participation.
- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -