Cloverfield (2008)

I've been spending most of my time catching up on the cream of the crop of 2007 movies, so as to be more informed in compiling my Top 10, 20, 30 or whatever list. In doing so I've spent money in the cinema watching Oscar-worthy rollovers from last year, and avoiding many of the January/February 2008 releases. Even so, nothing during this period has particularly caught my eye, and those that I have checked out have been wheeled out by the hype machine right onto my proverbial dinner plate.

I had to see Cloverfield. Its viral marketing campaign wasn't quite on the same level of fanboy-droolfest as The Dark Knight, but it did have plenty of intrigue. Who wasn't the least bit curious at the sight of a headless Statue of Liberty? Who didn't want a sneak peak at the sight of the under wraps 'monster'? You must give credit to the makers of Cloverfield for keeping a crucial plot element, in the identity of the central destructive force, relatively secret in our age of movie trailers that increasingly fall prey to giving their best plot moments away during their brief 3 minute duration.

The movie is shot in handheld, with a shaky-cam that's intense and to a greater extent, completely nauseating. Myself, I don't even suffer from travel sickness and I had to look away briefly many times. It's almost as if someone dangled a camera on a shoelace and brought it onto the Pepsi Max. 9/11 was captured on home video by a great deal of people and I can understand the sense of dread that can be achieved through this method as opposed to heavily edited, manipulated news footage, but it really became too much for me. However, not everyone would have the same experience as me so I can certainly not count this as a flaw. It's far from a flaw; it becomes the movie's main strength and lifts it above other examples of the genre. In a way, it is almost like a ride simulator at a theme park: it draws you in, and it doesn't let you leave for 80 minutes. Those 80 minutes are gonna hurt, because they seem like forever, and unfortunately it begins to render the experience tiresome once you accept that you've seen enough wanton annihilation for one day.

The story itself is a mixed bag. We have the same 2-dimensional characters you come to expect from these disaster movies, complete with an broad, initial ambition (head to Japan), quickly transformed into a do or die goal (save the sexy girlfriend). Yes, these are the same sexy youths you're so familiar with from many of the other various Hollywood horror/slasher flicks you've been subjected to at your best friend's nth birthday sleepover. However, the way Cloverfield is filmed doesn't beg us to care about their ordeal, but instead to observe it. We follow them in a voyeuristic fashion, weaving in and out of the carnage that erupts left, right and centre. It's good to feel detached from such unlikeable characters; it's even better to see them attacked by giant parasites.

That's the thrill and the flaw that becomes inherent within Cloverfield. Its sole purpose is to follow these chosen individuals through their ordeal, yet it begs the question as to why the cameraman would choose to film them, over the much more valuable option of shooting footage of the monster? For me, it is simply a small annoyance, but it doesn't detract from the sole aim of the film: to entertain. It achieves this, loud and proud, at least for a while.

Like a theme park ride, it comes and goes ferociously, a thrill that you patiently wait for through first reveal of teaser posters, up until the very last moment in which the handheld hits the ground and shuts itself off. What happens next? After having seen the film, I began to contemplate its lasting impact and I concluded that it was no better, or worse, than other disaster epics of the last few years. Yes, it took an original approach, but it was essentially the same old dog with new tricks, and for that I deemed it ultimately forgettable. I may have had some fairly positive things to say about Cloverfield in the last few paragraphs, but ask me again in a few months, and I doubt I'll have anything to comment on at all, other than its superficiality. It's all harmless fun, and recommended, but despite what many may say, it won't forever stand out in your memory.

**