On Film: Cloverfield

This is a film that has really divided critics.  I didn't have an opportunity to see the film early so I didn't of course do an advanced review.  Watching all the other reviews hit the web made me want to go ahead and speak my mind about this most unique of monster movies.

This film has been hyped for a long time with vague and purposefully mysterious websites, ads, and product placement.  The mysterious campaign and the film's connection to LOST and Alias creator JJ Abrams brought about speculation that there was some big mystery around the film and its "codename".  Well, let me say this without giving away too much; there is no mystery.  In fact, this monster attacks New York film is about as basic and straightforward as it can be.  That doesn't mean it's not good because it is the creators have just chosen to approach the classic formula in a an innovative way.

Typically a story like this, such as King Kong, is told in a very epic way with an almost global feeling.  This style of filmmaking makes the attack feel extremely destructive and scary.  With Cloverfield the creators have decided to approach a story like this from the ground level.  Instead of showing a global perspective they show the attack from an individual, or at least small group perspective.  There's obviously a 9/11 allegory here with scenes of destruction and people reacting similarly in the film to that tragic day.  There's also a small comment on people's need to overly record everything that happens in their lives.  There is opportunity for deeper social commentary in the film but it is mostly just anecdotal rather than deep commentary with the creators choosing instead to bury the film in the action of survival, which isn't a bad choice, just a choice.

The basic story follows a group of hipsters at a going away party for one of Rob who ahs taken a job in Japan.  Rob's brother is given a video camera to record the night's events and get comments from all of Rob's friends.  We learn through the first several minutes of the film that Rob had sex with a girl who had been a really close friend and now things are awkward between them.  These are all really annoying people and just before things get to irritating all Hell breaks lose when a giant monster attacks the city.  The group makes a break for it with Rob's brother constantly recording everything.  The entire film is shot from the perspective of the recording.

Many critics, usually the cooler ones, have given bad marks to this film because they hate all of the characters in the film.  I'm really on the fence in this regard, certainly not willing to take points away from the film due to the characters.  I don't like any of them myself, and in real life I would probably hate these people.  They're the types we'd see whooping it up with Paris Hilton and some overpriced night club.  Here's the thing though, in this location in Manhattan you'd be more likely to run into these people than a cooler crowd, so these unlikable characters add an additional layer of reality to the proceedings.  I will say that it's hard to care what happens to many o these people because there's no emotional connection to be made with any of them.

As it stands, there's a real art house sort of approach to this big monster movie and it really works to make the action suspenseful and exciting.  This takes the idea of The Blair Witch Project to a new and more successful level.  For me, this is easily one of the best monster movies to hit theaters since the 70's and it should be experienced in a theater for the first viewing.