I think what makes Cloverfield somewhat refreshing and unique amongst movies of its kind is that it straddles the line between reality and outlandish fantasy so well that it makes you feel for these characters who are stuck and have no clue how they are going to survive, or if they can survive. The problem with most CGI creature movies is that when you get shot after shot and angle after angle of a computer generated fallacy, your fright often subsides. I don’t want to see a clear shot of a monster doing back-flips and running quickly towards its prey. For most monster movies, the creature isn’t all that believable. Computer technology, animatronics, or puppetry doesn’t always hit the spot in the scare department.
Like I said at the start, I read quite a few reviews of Cloverfield before I went to see it. Some reviewers said that they needed to see more. Why isn’t a taste better than a full-blown meal? I have scores of questions that I’d like to ask writer Drew Goddard and crew, but I also have my own mind to work with. Since there is only the taped footage that stands as evidence of the Cloverfield event, you are left to wonder what happened after the attack. Who survived? What happened to the other party-goers who didn’t hang out with Rob, Jason, Lily, Hud, and Marlena? What happens to Mahnattan? Is it inhabitable again? Can the military prepare itself for another attack like this? Maybe a sequel will be made, one that is shot from multiple angles, not from a first-person POV. I, for one, don’t need one.
There are certain movies that leave you dangling off a cliff, that could continue their story for three or four sequels' worth. I think that Cloverfield is amusing, alarming, and terrifying enough to keep me satisfied. The actors put forward good performances, the monster is suitably scary, and the story takes turns that make me happy. Cloverfield is not typical horror fare, nor is it a weak filmmaking effort. January is supposed to be a time for movies not worthy of much praise, but I think that even with the Oscar-worthy gems coming down the pike, Cloverfield will still be high on my list of great 2008 films.
Article comments
1 - qer
hmmm....not yet seen the movie, but from reviews and reader comments it appears to have an over 90% rating which is simply amazing for such an unbelievable nonsense as a outsize monster rampaging through a city !!! and that too with countless godzilla, king-kong type movies already becoming history, seems the movie producers have pulled off the impossible...glurk !
guess its worth seeing.......off to the ticket booking counter !
2 - HF
A NOT scary nauseating walk through Cloverfield..
My ex-mother-in-law is scarier than the monster and I get her for free. I got dizzy while watching this movie because the camera is so blury and jumpy. Blair Witch used this style, but at least that movie had a story. The character who was filming the home movie was annoying. I know that kid. I have kicked him out of my house and now he's in a movie. Nice...You don't really get to see the monster clearly, only at the end and just for a second. It looked like a muppet.
3 - V. Smith
You're welcome to your opinon on how scary the monster is; What I found scary about the mosnter was how destructive it was more than it's look.
However, there was never any promise that there would be a full on look at the monster. You do get to see views of the monster, but never a full view of the monster from front to back. I still can't piece together how it looks. Since the movie, I have seen art of the monster, and I would have thought it would have looked more octopus-like.
Oh, and BTW, this has more of a story than the Blair Witch Project. I will stand up to that statement as a fact. There's a lot of backstory on who the characters are in Cloverfield. We know Rob is a VP for a big company with offices in Japan. We know that Hudson is his friend and Jason is Rob's brother. We know that Rob and Beth have a certain type of
relationship. We know a lot of details about them. Further along in the story, when characters meet other people, they learn a little more about the monster and its offspring. What's missing is the history of the monster and how it was created, which you aren't supposed to know anyway.
I'm not a big fan of when people say a movie has "no plot." I have watched movies (usually extremely low budget ones) that literally have no plot.
Also, don't tell me you didn't laugh at the thing Hud said about a homeless guy while they were in the tunnels. That had me laughing hard!
4 - kiki23
I thought that this movie was great. It had me interested through the whole movie, not like the Blair Witch. I liked how Cloverfield made me feel like I was watching a news breif on what was happening in NYC. It was all over just a great movie!
5 - joe
My theory is that watching this movie is much like looking at a 3D movie or a 3D image on paper. It's like when you draw a cube on a paper... some people see a cube when they look at it, but a small percenetage of the people only se a bunch of lines... thats probably because their brains are still very primitive or they lack something that allows the rest of us to grasp abstract concepts and ideas. To make a long story short, if you get motion sicknes from watching something on TV or Theater then your'e a fucking idiot.
6 - V. Smith
Calm yourself :)
If you want to make a leap from motion sickness to stupidity, that's all you. a vast array of people, some who I know personally, some who I don't, complained of catching motion sickness from the camera flaying wildly. It's just, I don't know, something genetic. All I know is that I've never gotten physically sick from a wild camera.
7 - joe
I believe you may be correct and what you said is exactly what I meant. It most likely is something genetic. It's just saddening to hear that there's so many people that have the same reaction. It even made CNN.com. I personnaly thought it was a great movie, and at no point during the movie did I feel nausea or motion sickness. I wonder... if I were to draw something on a paper and let one of them look at it while I shake it all around, would they get sick then too? It's very sad to hear that so many people have no appreciation for the arts.
8 - joe
Is stupidity a genetic trait?????
9 - V. Smith
Um, yeah. I don't know what agenda you're on about, or why you think that linking to wikipedia makes any sense, but OK.
For some reason you hate people for having a reaction they are not completely in control of.
If you want to continue this conversation you can come here.
10 - Victor Nemo
I went to see this movie not expecting much. I came out of the movie with a sense of amazement. This is because i love movies like Independence day and Godzilla and found out before hand i was not going to get many answers. So i just sat back and planned to enjoy the action and graphics. I was mind blown by what was going on and there are twist and turns with main characters dying and gut turning scenes.