(Long Island, N.Y.) There’s been more mystery surrounding Cloverfield than any film in recent memory. A cryptic, untitled teaser trailer for this “giant monster eats Manhattan” movie was released this past summer, and instantly everyone was abuzz…partially because of the parallels the trailer displayed to the NYC 9/11 attacks, but also because no one saw this film coming. In this age of the internet, plot leaks, spoilers, and clandestine behind-the-scenes photos/video footage of movies in development are commonplace.
It’s almost impossible to keep anything under wraps anymore, but through lightning-fast production, actors reading for roles using scripts not at all related to the movie they were auditioning for, and various other techniques, Cloverfield managed to keep moviegoers in suspense until its opening day.
Anyway, after seeing the movie, I’m still in suspense- mainly because Cloverfield poses more questions than it answers. Still, in this era of movies that waste time explaining everything in agonizing detail and draw out the running time to an unbearable length, this element of the unknown was a welcome change. You’re not given any more information as to what’s happening than the main characters of the film have, and it helps so much when it comes to putting you in their shoes and engulfing you in their world gone awry.
The plot itself is as thin as the paper the script was typed on- some friends in Manhattan throw a going away party for their buddy Rob (Michael Stahl-David), and in the midst of the revelries, said giant monster gatecrashes and starts munching on skyscrapers and the people within.
The surviving friends must (just like the classic John carpenter film says) escape from New York. And…well, that’s it. Of course, the catch is that the entire film is shot from the point of view of “Hud” (T. J. Miller) and his handycam, who was tasked with documenting the party before everything went to hell. Once buildings start collapsing the decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty careens down the street, Hud just keeps on filming because, in his words, “people need to know how it went down.” I guess we’re just lucky that Hud is using a consumer-grade camcorder that can apparently shoot for 8 hours straight without so much as a battery or tape change, but I digress.
So, the un-named monster itself (Cloverfield is its “military designation,” although where this title comes from is never explained- perhaps the monster is Irish?), once we get to actually see it, is a fearsome sight- 500 feet tall and looking like a bizarre cross between a rubbery dinosaur and an orangutan (mostly in the sense that it’s a fist-walker). Once it pops up early in the feature, the creature starts knocking down buildings and dropping freakish spider-like parasites from its body that start feeding on whoever is nearby. The monster…wait, I’m tired of calling it that, and since the producers couldn’t bother naming it, I will…so, “Fred” absorbs a tremendous amount of firepower directed at it by the military, seemingly to no effect whatsoever. Where did Fred come from, where is he going, and what, if anything, can stop him? These answers don’t come, but that suprisingly doesn’t take away from Cloverfield in the least.
Upon hearing that the film was actually shot with a little digital hand-held camcorder, epilepsy-inducing visions of non-stop camera shaking invaded my mind, but within the context of this movie, this filming meathod totally worked (and the shake actually wasn’t as bad as some films that use real, $20,000 film cameras). In fact, the home movie-quality of the footage actually helped draw me into the situation, helped make it actually feel “real”…something no conventionally filmed and edited flick would be so capable of. The intensity level peaks early and remains high for the entire running length, all the way to the rather abrupt ending. Films have been presented this way before, most notably the overrated Blair Witch Project, but never with this degree of raw finesse.
The movie stumbles here and there, but it’s nothing that ruins the experience as a whole. Since the camera is manned by only one character for almost the entire feature, the film only presents one rather limited point of view of Fred’s attack.
More footage of the creature, I mean Fred, would have been welcome. Still, the fleeting glimpses of Fred only serve to bump up the fear-factor, in my opinion.
Also, the characters in Hud the cameraman’s little group start doing some rather unrealistic things, considering the circumstances. Aside from an ill-timed attempt at humor in one scene that takes place right after Rob’s brother was eaten, a plot element involving Rob’s ex-girlfriend surfaces where the gang decides to venture directly into the carnage zone to attempt to rescue her. Believe me, if you saw the obstacles involved in doing so, you’d leave your own grandmother behind to get stomped flat by Fred the monster. But movies love to paint the picture that the human spirit is indomitable and will rise to all adversity, so of course our heroes must persevere and plunge forth bravely and foolishly into danger. But I guarantee the audience wasn’t buying it.
In the end, Cloverfield is refreshing, fast-paced (it clocks in at a short 1 hour and 24 minutes, lean and mean by today’s standards), engaging, and actually quite scary. As stated, there’s next to no plot and multiple questions remain unanswered at its conclusion, but Cloverfield never advertised itself to be anything more than a monster movie in the vein of Godzilla or Rodan. In that sense, it not only succeeds wildly, but it stands as the near pinnacle of the genre by presenting the material in a serious, realistic, and horrific way. Hopefully a sequel will emerge that will answer some questions about Fred the monster, and if the box-office records Cloverfield broke this weekend are any indication- it’s already made back its rather cheap $30 million budget and then some- one will be forthcoming shortly.
Oh, by the way-if someone tells you to wait until after the credits for a surprise, please don’t do it- it’s not worth your time. At the end of the credits, a garbled radio message plays (in reverse, no less) for all of 3 seconds. You can easily Google it (and even hear it played forward) and spend the time you would have wasted sitting through the credits going to the bathroom or something. Enjoy.
