Review: Cloverfield

If you have seen the trailers for this film, which have been around since Transformers, then you really have the complete gist of the film: Blair Witch meets Godzilla.
Cloverfield documents the story of a gargantuan monster that attacks New York City and is told from first person pov of a single video camera. The camera operator, and his friends, are trying to rescue a girl, which means they have to go deeper into the city, right to the monster.

So, without giving too much more away, the question is, does it work? I believe it did. Ultimately, it wasn't as satisfying as I was hoping, and the very nature of this style of story telling tends to feel "forced." But, I think it works because had this been a simple giant monster movie, who would go see it? Remember Godzilla a few years back? Ultimately, it did not work because the story was all about the monster. With Cloverfield the monster serves to direct where the characters go, and to make that journey difficult. The monster is more like the shark in Jaws because we hardly really see him until the end, but you see all of the destruction.

Cloverfield was fun, but I think that I would be more critical of it with a subsequent viewing.

Comments

James said…
Your are right about this one - somehow it works. And it's bold and innovative. There is a point when this thing gets up to steam, when they are hiding in the subway, that I realized: this cannot possibly end well. I think had I not braced myself for that outcome it would have been more of a downer for me. That said, I give it 3 out of 5 stars.
1:38 AM
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