I Saw It, It's Alive! - Cloverfield Review

Disclaimer: I will not include any spoilers in any reviews I do on this blog. I myself hate it when I find out something before I experience it, (I even close my eyes and ears when the "coming up after the commercial break" sections occur on tv shows) so I won't do that to others. Alrighty? On with the review!

I saw Cloverfield last night at midnight, and as sleep deprived as I have been, I'm glad I did it. I wouldn't consider myself a very good critic of movies with regards to the popular opinion, but I do know my own likes/dislikes and it is here where I'll display them for this movie and any other random piece of film that inspires a blog post.

Some background information first - Cloverfield was actually named by the director, JJ Abrams, as a temporary title that he took from a road sign near where he lived. It was sent out as a code name so nobody truly knew what the movie was about, and it was intended that the title be changed to Greyshot, but the original "Cloverfield" had already spread and was popular - so they kept it.

What was the movie about? Well, JJ Abrams had been in Japan and had seen all of the Godzilla merchandise and thought it was about time that New York had its own Monster - I mean afterall, King Kong was only a big monkey, right? So, that's what he created; a monster that has come up from the ocean to destroy the city of New York and humankind, and literally deface our country's symbol of freedom. What a politically motivated beast!

The movie is told through a "raw recording" of the attack, and has since become top-secret video, property of the U.S. government. The film was taken by a group of friends who had only intended to tape some goodbye speeches at a going away party, until they were placed right in the middle of the horrifying event. The recording is them trying to get all of their loved ones out of the city and to stay alive all the while documenting the tragedy for whatever purposes.

I had a couple of problems with the movie, the main of which is in regards to the actors' reactions during various parts of the film; whether or not they were actor or director choices - they just weren't believable at points... let's do some hypothetical situations here...

If a gigantic thing just attacked your city and you got a glimpse of it, would you stand around and talk about it? Would you try to decide the best roads to take to get out of the city? Or would you just fucking run away from it? Of course, you can't understand a lot of people when they're running, but would you have to have so much conversation?

Here's another one... Now, let's say that one of your friends just had someone close to them be hurt or die in some massive accident... hypothetical now - regardless of the fact that many people around you are freakishly perishing by the second - would you sit there with a worried look on your face and say "sorry buddy" and then joke around about shit? Now I'm not talking about trying to 'make light of the situation' - I'm talking about the everything-in-the-world-is-fine-and-you're-laying-in-a-field-of-daisies kind of joking around? That would be virtually impossible unless you were Helen Keller and had no clue what was happening.

I just didn't believe that any of these people were panicked or even in shock half of the time. I think these emotions were attempted, but some of the time I just didn't believe them. Granted there's a lot of action in the movie that will mask these poorly executed emotions, but sometimes it just seemed painful. Now I understand that a movie has to have an arch - if there's screaming at the top of your lungs nonstop through the movie you're going to get bored - but at the beginning of the attack I was unimpressed with the unenthusiastic behavior and didn't know if I would like the movie - it did get a lot better towards the middle of the film though and kept a somewhat-realistic vibe throughout the rest of the story.

Other than that I thought it was amazing. The monster is very cool and not cheesy, which I was scared about. Some things about the creature are never really explained, but then again - how would you truly know where it came from or why it does what it does when you're looking through the eyes of some innocent bystander. It was very creepy and its 'sub-creatures' make for some of the best scenes.

Speaking of the monster - the special effects are amazing - especially for the style of video, they really make it all look realistic. Half of the time I was sitting there going, how did they do this!? Did they rent out parts of the city or just create A LOT of duplicate sets or what!? It's part of the wonder of the show, and it all makes for some interesting camera shots.

The plot line is also interesting. The movie isn't simply unknowns running away - you get somewhat attached to the characters, not horribly, and they have goals and obstacles during the movie that fill up the time and make for good action.

I also hear that there's possibility of a sequel - the current idea behind a second movie atm, is having it be the same evening and the same attack, just through someone else's life/eyes. It could be from the military's point of view, or someone that was on a water craft, viewing it from afar - and they could have a couple shots where they unknowingly cross paths with the people from the first movie. I think it would be a very cool idea. Afterall, a sequel showing a second attack or something would be boring and would probably make for a dud of a movie. Been there done that!

Go see Cloverfield movie and let me know what you think! It's very good - in my own opinion.

I can't wait to see this next:

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