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January 22nd, 2008
WARNING: SPOILER ALERT
I went to go see Cloverfield on opening night. I haven’t been to a movie on opening night in a long time. I offered to go with my wife, but she didn’t think she would get into the movie. The fact that the studio was very careful in keeping the details about the movie secret and that hadn’t really paid attention to the trailers added to her disinterest. I’m the movie buff in the family anyway. She did miss out though. It was quite an experience.
First of all, I’m a monster movie fanatic. My favorite movies of all time are The Thing (Carpenter version) and An American Werewolf in London. Like most guys my age, Saturday afternoon giant monster movies were somewhat of a religious experience. Watching Godzilla and Gamera fighting other giant monsters, (and sometimes each other) was some of the most memorable moments in my childhood. It wasn’t long before we figured out it was just some guys in monster suits stomping on miniatures, but man it was still awesome.
The most recent incarnations of Godzilla have something left to be desired. While the CG version in the 1998 American version of Godzilla did add some technological innovations, it just didn’t feel like a Godzilla movie. If was too polished and ironically, too fake. I’m all for revamping old movies, but for the most part they just don’t measure up to the originals.
Cloverfield offers something that none of the monster movies of old ever offered: a fresh perspective. All the giant monster movies share the same point of view. We sit right along with the military, therefore we know everything about the monster that they do. We know what it is, where it came from, where it’s at, what it’s doing and ideas for how to bring it down. Those ideas usually fail miserably with escalating demonstrations of firepower that ultimately just piss the thing off. The giant monster either gets defeated by another giant monster, or simply goes away after it’s completed whatever it set out to do in the first place.
In Cloverfield, we don’t know shit. The film, which is shot completely in a hand-held style similar to 1999′s The Blair Witch Project, does an excellent job of putting us at ground level amongst innocent bystanders that have no idea what’s going on. It also illustrates how the monster attack is handled as a secret government operation. We’re not privy to classified information normally handed it in these types of movies.
I’m sure the filmmakers gathered a lot of inspiration from the 9-11 attacks on New York for a lot of the ground zero staging. There is a shot where the main protagonists of the film take refuge in a small shop that is eerily reminiscent of camcorder footage from 9-11. The white smoke and ash engulfing everything in it’s path was something we’ve all seen in the weeks of coverage after the attacks.
Early on, we get introduced to some flea-like parasites that fall off the main monster. Just big enough to take a grown man down, but not too big that you can’t put up a good fight to bring them down. Great tunnel scene involving these buggers. The monster itself was great. We never really get a good look at it until very late in the film, another staple of a good monster flick. When we do though, it’s about as close as you can get. Literally.
I loved this movie, despite the going-back-to-save-my-girlfriend-you-go-on-no-we’re-coming-with-you plot device. It fulfilled all my expectations from J.J. Abrams. The effects were top-notch and the sound was killer. Unless you’re prone to motion sickness, I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone wanting a good popcorn movie setting a new standard in the genre. A fresh perspective is always a good thing.
4 out of 5 stars.
~Mar
Poopflinger Supreme