Cloverfield
By Jason Revill
I have my issues with this film, but they mostly revolve around some aspects of the monster that appear to be there just to add drama to a set piece in a subway tunnel, but to get into it would give away more than I’d like. I also am fairly surprised at how little reference to 9/11 there is in this film. There is one scene where a building falls and a cloud of dust comes rolling down a street, but after the World Trade Center collapsed, the world saw exactly what it looks like when a skyscraper falls. So from now on in movies you should expect it to look similar to what the public consciousness has as a reference point.
Other than that there are a few people who after the first explosion mutter a few things about terrorists, but really there isn’t much. I find it hard to believe that in New York City if you see a giant fireball on the horizon you don’t automatically assume it’s another attack. That being said it probably was wise to stay away from that aspect of it, so people wouldn’t think you were piggybacking on that tragedy. Besides the people who are making mention of the 9/11 parallels were suspiciously quiet during Transformers when Megatron flew into the side of a building. I guess when Michael Bay does it for nothing but gruesome shock value its fine, but one cloud of debris in Cloverfield and all of a sudden there’s subtext. If you say so.
To be honest there isn’t a whole lot to dislike about the film. I think most people who do will do so for a couple reasons. Some folks won’t care for the fact that we never really pull back to get the full scope of what’s going on. I can understand that problem, but Cloverfield simple isn’t about that. Sure you see the monster quite a bit, but this a microcosm of the greater destruction. If scale is what you’re looking for, Independence Day might be more to your liking. The only other reason I can think of to not like this movie is that you are just too cool to like it. This is the kind of person who generally quits watching a television show after two seasons, because it supposedly isn’t any good any more. They’re most easily recognized by the fact that they used to really love Lost, but now just talk about how terrible it is and wait for any opportunity to bad mouth J.J. Abrams. In this case they don’t like Cloverfield, because they wanted the internet buzz to be just theirs, but when it turns out that it actually is a good movie that people in general will enjoy, well, they can’t stand for that and have to trash it. Now if this movie had been total garbage, they would be crawling out of the woodwork to laud it as genius.
If I’m completely honest, I didn’t expect to like Cloverfield going in. I was extremely wary about seeing what I thought was going to be a monster movie for the YouTube generation, but what can I say? I really enjoyed it. At a total of eighty-four minutes it’s an economy of filmmaking and well aware of running a risk of overstaying its welcome but gets out before it does. I personally didn’t have a problem with the camera work, but the person I saw it with said the handheld stuff got to them a bit, but the movie ended perfectly so as not to really bother them. Secretly I think some of Cloverfield’s detractors got a little seasick and rather than admit it, they just wuss out and say it’s a bad film. However, in reality it’s a pretty good little flick. I’m not saying this is Citizen Kane or anything, but it’s loud, fast and solidly self aware. Cloverfield knows exactly what it wants to be right out of the gate and does exactly what it set out to do without any hint of pretense. Even for a Godzilla fan, I have to admit that I was won over by the somewhat fresh take on the giant monster genre. If there is such a thing.
The Grade
- Story: B
- Acting: B-
- Visuals: B+
- Originality: B
- Enjoyability: B+
- Overall: B+
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