Review of Cloverfield

Cloverfield - It could have been so much better

Saw Cloverfield with friends last night, and with all the reviews being positive, I figured I'd give this one a shot.  After the credits ended, I left disappointed at what could have been a great movie. I'm going to skip explaining the story, and just get to the things I liked and didn't like about this movie. The Good: The Initial Attack - I have not squirmed that much in a movie before in a long time.  Hearing the first roar of the creature, to seeing the first explosion.  There is a panic and hysteria here that feels so real.  I love that the characters are curious to know more, and then suddenly realize that they are still in danger.  Watching these scenes got my heart racing, excited to see what came next. The Director and Budget - Throughout the movie I kept thinking, "Wow I wonder how much this all cost to film" - and to my surprise, it was an amazing $25 million.  That's almost.. Robert Rodriguez budget filming for an incredible, effects filled action flick.  It's impressive that a director could keep costs down without losing his vision for the film.  Movie studios will be fighting with each other to get at Matt Reeves.   I'm excited to see what he comes up with next. The Reality of the film - small touches, like opening with a color bar, no actual titles, and no soundtrack set the mood of this film perfectly.  Making the video seem like it was taped over Rob's day with Beth was a great way to add backstory, and brought a lighter side to an ultimately depressing story.   Also, little touches like Rob going into an electronics store to get a replacement battery were great (although I have to admit, the videocamera that Hud uses has got to have the best batteries in the world). The fate of the characters - I'm glad that almost everyone (well except for one, although her final fate is unknown) dies by the end of the movie.  The "Found footage" gimmick of the movie depends on these characters dying.  If the movie had kept these characters alive, it would have ruined the believability of the situation (which is already very suspect).  Ok, now that I've said that, let's move on: The Bad: The Party Set-up - Too long, unnecessary, and boring.  Yes, I understand you need to set up a  backstory for characters, but spending 5 minutes pointing out the fact that Rob slept with Beth is inane.   Yes, I get that Hud stumbles with Marlena, but after the first zoom in on her and I was ready to be done.  Back when the first trailer appeared before Transformers, this was a great.  Quickly set up that we're at a party, and get on with the destruction and chaos. Believability - The movie ultimately fails to me because while Cloverfield is set up as a realistic depiction of a creature attack, characters make decisions based on forwarding the plot rather than common sense.  Lily constantly disagrees with Rob, saying things like "We can't go back, we have to get to safety" - and a second later switches to "Ok let's go" without a convincing argument or anything.  Why?  Because it's more interesting for a group to go and get in danger.  Hud is constantly filming, because "People need to see this!"  But filming your supposed love and asking "Are you ok?" while watching her bleed to death is absolutely ridiculous.  And why in the world does the world need to see you walking across an unstable platform to reach a crumbling tower?  There are numerous places where things like this happen, which left me disconnected from the film. Ridiculous Dialogue - I'm guessing Cloverfield didn't have an actual script, and it definitely shows.  It's almost as bad as an episode of MTV's "Laguna Beach", only not as many um's and like's.  I'm tired of this whole "unscripted" gimmick.  It's unbelievable, and doesn't give the intended effect of spontaneity. Emotional tie to Characters - This is definitely a personal issue, but I didn't care for these characters at all.  Having an asshole like Hud as the main "narrator" and comedic relief made me groan.  The one character that I actually liked, Jason, was killed early on.  It ruined the cohesiveness of the ensemble cast.  The rest of the film was like watching a chicken with it's head cut off - You simply twiddle your thumbs and wait for the brainless mess to fall over. The mini-creatures - I have to admit, I am one of the most clueless people ever when it comes to guessing what comes next in a film.  It's rare that I get it right, and when I do, it's usually a sign of a awful, tired movie.  Right after Jason died, I thought to myself, "Gee, the character's don't really have anything to fight - I hope they don't go down the 1998 Godzilla remake route, and have mini-godzilla's attacking".  Sure enough, five minutes later we see helpless bystanders get ambushed by these tiny terrors.  Groan. Other movies that do a "Realistic Creature Feature" better: The Host - This small Korean film has a surprisingly similar plot: a family is torn apart by an attacking creature from the deep.  While in quarantine, the father receives a phone call from a thought-to-be-dead daughter, and the family sets out to find their lost companion.  This movie had a great mix of realism, plot, and emotional ties to the characters. Shaun of the Dead - A bizarre group of people try to survive in the streets of zombie-infested London.  Here we have people making bad, even stupid decisions, but what's different here is each person is held accountable for their choices.  Also, each character is immensely likable. I am Legend - I'm not focusing on the CGI-mess that the creatures were, I'm talking about the believability of a damaged man living in a deserted New York.  Here we see flashbacks of him and his family - even with the short amount of screen time, I felt more connected to these people than the god-awful time it took to get through the Cloverfield party.

Posted on 01/22/08 by: Rowgun 03:29 PM