This weekend brings the release of "Cloverfield", a movie produced by J.J. Abrams that has had a huge amount of hype surrounding it. I usually don't do individual full length reviews on here, unless they have a big impact on me after I see it. "Cloverfield" not only did this, but the build-up to it mixed with the audience reaction at the end made me feel somewhat compelled to give my two cents about it. Just an early note, this review will have some SPOILERS, so if you want to go into it fresh, you should wait to read it.
Let's start by going back a little bit. Back to July. Tons of people piled in the theatre to see "Transformers". Before the movie, they were all treated to a perplexing but nonetheless interesting teaser. It started out with video camera footage of a going-away party for someone named Rob. His friends are giving their goodbyes on camera and having a good time, when suddenly, a loud roar is heard, the lights start to flicker and the room shakes. Everyone runs outside to see what is going and we just get a few quick flashes of utter chaos, including the head of the Statue of Liberty flying into the streets. After that, the simple title "1-18-08" flashed on the screen and that was it.
The internet pretty much exploded with speculation. What was this movie? How did it get made with almost no one knowing about it? What's with the cryptic date? However, most of the guessing and speculation was related to the monster. What was it? Several Godzilla jokes were strewn about and fake pictures were put up, claiming to be the actual monster. The official website for the film (www.1-18-08.com) only featured a collection of mysterious photographs. Two more websites related to the film, one for a Japanese soft drink called Slusho! and the other for a Japanese drilling company, only caused more confusion.
As the months went on, some people lost interest while others only became more interested in the mystery of "Cloverfield". So now that it's finally out the big question is whether or not it lived up to the hype. Is "Cloverfield" a good movie?
In my opinion, hell yes. "Cloverfield" is a very rare movie experience. It's one of the few movies that after seeing it, I kept thinking about how I wished I could relive the experience of seeing it for the first time. That's not to say it will only be good once. It's just that I got so wrapped up in the movie and I know, while I will enjoy it on repeat viewings, it won't match the excitement and tension I felt on first viewing. You know the type of movie I mean; the kind that's so intense and full of so many surprises that it really becomes an experience watching it.
There's been a lot of complaint about the first 20 minutes of the film as it's pretty much just set-up and plot development. I personally thought it was very necessary. You need to get to know these characters and their backstories because once all Hell breaks loose, the movie doesn't let up. There's no time to slow down. The main character of the film is Rob (Michael Stahl-David), who has taken a job offer in Japan and is having a surprise going away party thrown for him by his brother Jason (Mike Vogel), his best friend Hud (T.J. Miller) and Jason's fiancee, Lily (Jessica Lucas). In the opening, we find out that Rob slept with his longtime friend Beth (Odette Yustman) and then just avoided her afterwards, causing much tension and awkwardness. Beth ends up showing at Rob's party with another guy and after some arguing she ends up leaving. Like I said, pretty basic set up but I didn't mind it because, again, it's necessary for later and the characters are actually pretty likeable. Then the monster becomes a part of the story and that's where things get interesting.
When I said the film doesn't let up, I mean it. Nearly every minute of the film is filled with chaos and panic. There are a few quiet moments spread throughout but even those are filled with tension, because you don't know what's going to happen. From the second Rob, Jason, Hud, Lily and their friend, Marlena (Lizzy Caplan), go out on the street. Almost anything can, and does, happen. There is destruction going around all over the place and not everyone makes it to the end alive.
At this point, I think it would be best just to focus on certain aspects about the movie and what worked about them.
STORY/SCREENPLAY
As I said before, the set up is pretty simple, but when the actual story kicks in, it's actually very interesting. First off, let's put this out on the table and say that this is not what you would call a monster movie. Yes, the monster is a very important part of the film and is the catalyst for everything that follows, but when it comes down to it, "Cloverfield" is a movie about survival, disorientation, determination and hope. The survival aspect is pretty obvious. The disorientation goes along more with the way it is filmed, which I'll go into more in a little bit. The cool thing about "Cloverfield" is that it puts it's focus on the regular people. In most disaster/monster movies, the main characters are soldiers or scientists trying to solve the problem. There's shots of the disaster all over the city. Usually, the president or mayor or some political official trying to take command. This movie stays down with the people where the real action is taking place. The characters have no idea what the hell is going on but it's scary. The army shows up for a short while, but even then it's not an obvious scene of exposition. The characters try to get answers and are just pushed aside. There is also a lot of surreal images throughout the film, such as a shot of an empty horse drawn carriage crossing a quiet street. It brings up a good point as to how in times of crisis or tragedy, we always seem to focus on odd little things. Determination and hope fit in with the major driving force of the story. Shortly after the attacks start, Rob gets a call from Beth. All she is able to say is that she's trapped and she's hurt. The rest of the story turns into a rescue mission. Rob knows he has to go that despite the chaos and danger, he has to find Beth, because he loves her and you can tell that even though he knows she could die, he has to find her because he can't leave things with her the way they ended when she stormed out of his apartment earlier. The film focuses on some interesting things about our current culture. There's lots of obvious allusion to 9/11 with famous New York landmarks being destroyed and the general panic everyone of everyone running on the streets. It also puts a lot of focus on our current culture's obsession with documenting everything they see, what is becoming the YouTube generation. After the head of the Statue of Liberty lands on the street, civilians immediately take out their phones and start snapping pictures. It seems ridiculous at first, but then you realize that that's what most people would do these days. Even Hud's determination to film everything ends up making sense. He points out how this is something important and people need to know about it.
The screenplay is by Drew Goddard and it's quite good. Goddard has some of the best episodes of such cult shows as "Buffy The Vampire Slayer", "Angel", and "Lost". The dialogue he gives the characters is, aside from a few expositional lines, pretty realistic. He manages to mix in some really sad moments (a scene where Rob talks to his mom on the phone is particularly heartbreaking) and even puts a few humourous moments throughout.
CHARACTERS
There's only 6 major characters in this movie so the movie hangs on them and the actors do a really good job with them. Michael Stahl-David does a good job as the hero of the film. He starts off as kind of arrogant and cocky (Jason even tells him that's he's kind of a douchebag) but when the horrors start, he really steps up and becomes likeable. Just the fact that he risks his life to save Beth gives him some admirable qualities. Odette Yustman has a pretty thankless role as Beth. She pretty much has to be the damsel in distress, which could get annoying, but Yustman does a good job with it and ends up giving you some sympathy for Beth. Jessica Lucas and Mike Vogel's characters start out as the stereotypical bickering couple but as time goes on, you can see they're mature people who really love each other. Lizzy Caplan is kind of known for playing the sarcastic, outsider girl and she does it again with Marlena. Caplan does it perfectly though and ends up being a really fun character. And then there's T.J. Miller as Hud. Hud is pretty much the most important character in "Cloverfield", in more ways than one. For one thing, he's the one filming all the events. Everything we see is from his perspective, so Hud ends up representing the audience. He also is the only one who provides a break from the tension throughout all the horror. Being the comic relief of the film can either be a blessing or a death sentence, depending on how it's played, but Miller does it perfectly. He cracks jokes throughout but it's more out of sheer nervousness than trying to get a response. He pretty much steals the show and Hud ends up being one of the best supporting characters ever in a movie.
DIRECTION/CAMERAWORK
One of the things detracting people from the movie is that it uses the "shaky-cam" style, which a lot of people hate. Personally, I don't mind if it's done right and director Matt Reeves uses it to perfect effect here. The movie sticks with the found footage approach the whole time and totally sells it the whole time. You get the feeling that this is actually footage from someone's camera. Taped over footage of Rob and Beth spending the day together is interspersed throughout. There's quick jump cuts from when Hud temporarily turns off the camera. There's shots that are either out of focus or at a strange angle. Hud even says at the beginning "I'm not a professional", so you get the feel that it's just an average person holding the camera. The digital video format also leads to the film's best moment, a scene in the subway that's really terrifying in it's intensity.
THE MONSTER
This is the main reason most people will be going to see the movie. Like I said before, the monster isn't heavily featured in the film. You mostly get fleeting glimpses of it that manages to show you so much and yet not quite enough to fully understand it. Near the end, we finally get a full glimpse of it and it is really something to behold. I wish I could find a comparison point but I honestly can't. It's almost impossible to describe. All I can really say for sure about it is that it's fucking huge and it's fucking awesome. The monster isn't the only threat though. No, along with the main monster, there are several smaller, spider-like creatures that fall off of it. These are nasty little fuckers that are quick and will completely fuck your shit up if they get near you. Seriously, kudos to the filmmakers for managing to make the creatures look totally realistic. As much as I loved "The Mist", you can tell the creatures are CGI. The monsters here end up looking totally real and end up blending seamlessly with the actors.
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From what I saw in the theater, "Cloverfield" is pretty much going to be a love-it or hate-it movie. The crowd when I saw it was almost all college students, mostly the loud annoying douchebag types who feel the need to make a noise at every break of silence. When the end credits started to roll, I heard cries of "Bullshit." and "That was so gay.", which in all honesty made me love the movie all the more. There's an episode of "Lost" (also produced by J.J. Abrams) in which Juliet and her book club is discussing "Carrie" by Stephen King. One annoying guy is going on about how much he hated the book and Juliet responds. "Actually, this is my favorite book, so I'm thrilled to hear you can't stand it." That pretty much sums up how I feel about a lot of the things I love. When there's something you really love, there's nothing more relieving than hearing that someone you find really annoying hates it, because you know that they didn't interpret it like you did. It makes that thing all the more special to you. In retrospect, Paramount took a big risk by trying to market this as a big blockbuster film. It's kind of a total geek movie. J.J. Abrams has always slightly leaned more towards that demographic and this is no exception. This isn't the movie for the typical audience; This is the movie for the geeks who spend a lot of time on the internet, analyzing and discussing the details of the movies and TV shows they love. Pretty much the Huds of the worlds, that's who this was made for. "Cloverfield" succeeds on a great level for me, because it managed to make the blockbuster film for the indie geek crowd. It's no easy feat to pull off, but J.J. Abrams and his Bad Robot crew did it perfectly.
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Cody