A giant monster attacking New York City isn’t exactly a groundbreaking plot. Neither is framing a movie from the perspective of a character holding a hand-held camera. However, put them together and you get Cloverfield, a unique spin on the monster movie genre. Cloverfield will be available on Blu-ray on June 3.
The first 20 minutes of Cloverfield feel like an episode of One Tree Hill or another one of those nighttime soaps that feature impossibly pretty young people. A group of twenty-something urbanites are at a goodbye party for Rob (Michael Stahl-David), who is relocating to Japan for work. Rob’s brother Jason (Mike Vogel) puts their best friend Hud (T.J. Miller) in charge of videotaping partygoers’ goodbye messages for Rob. When Rob’s longtime friend Beth (Odette Yustman) shows up with a date, he's infuriated since he’s in love with her and in fact slept with her a few weeks prior. An argument ensues, and Beth leaves the party early.
The merriment and drama is interrupted when chaos erupts in the city. Cue the doomsday scenes – explosions, fireballs, collapsed buildings, and of course the obligatory destruction of the Statue of Liberty. At first Rob and his friends try to flee the city, but a phone call from a trapped Beth compels them to stay and find her; those efforts comprise the rest of this 84 minute film.
Now, in a time of crisis the average person would drop everything and run. However, thankfully for the audience, Hud realizes the magnitude of the situation and films everything he sees on his camera with its unbelievably long-lasting battery. Regardless of what they encounter – a destroyed Brooklyn Bridge, a futile firefight between the military and the 30-story tall monster, or zergling-like creatures in a dark subway tunnel – Hud keeps the camera rolling for our benefit.
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