Cloverfield (2008)

Categorized | Movies & TV series

Tags : cloverfield, Michael Stahl-David, movie review, Odette Yustman

Posted on 21 February 2008 by criimson

ReviewColumn's rating :
2 stars

The poster advertising Cloverfield (2008) is an eye-catching sight - the monumental Statue of Liberty in a derelict state, without the head. In a nutshell, it is a show about how the state of New York got thrown into a state of disarray and chaos when a mysterious, gigantic monster unleashes an attack out of the blue. The plot follows the journey of Robert 'Rob' Hawkins (Michael Stahl-David) and his group of friends as they first try to escape Manhattan, and then proceed to save his love interest Elizabeth 'Beth' McIntyre (Odette Yustman).

The show starts off showing a replay of a 'Top Secret' video file, property of the Government of USA. It shows Rob playing around with a videocam, capturing early morning New York scenery and Beth sleeping. Then the video feed cuts to a scene of Jason and Lily, Rob's brother and Jason's girlfriend respectively, preparing a secret farewell party for Rob who accepted a job in Japan. All went as planned, but the party was interrupted by a tremor and a temporary power outage. News reports mentioned about a tanker capsizing nearby, before it exploded, raining flaming debris in Manhattan. Everyone panicked and ran to the streets, before being stopped in their tracks as they saw the decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty hurtling down the street.

It soon dawned on the group that there was a gargantuan creature wreaking havoc in the city. The group initially tried to escape, with Jason killed along the way, before Rob received a voice message from Beth, pleading for help. Beth's apartment was located at the city centre and going to help her would mean going towards the monster. Despite the very possible dangers, Rob decided to go to her rescue and the others decided to tag along.

Expectedly, the journey was fraught with danger. While hiking through underground train tunnels, they got attacked by smaller spider-like spawns of the bigger monster, resulting in the demise of yet another. They were caught, more than once, in the crossfire between military forces and the monster. When they eventually reached Beth's location, they saw that her entire block was toppled, supported from collapsing only by the building next to it. Braving the hazards, they managed to scale to the 39th storey and find Beth (who was impaled by a steel rod) and help her out into the streets.

They managed to reach an evacuation point and boarded a helicopter. Onboard, they witnessed a bomber jet unleash a series of bombardment on the creature, seemingly killing it. Yet out of the dust cloud, the monster lunged out, clipping the helicopter, causing it to crash-land in Central Park. Although all 3 of them survived, albeit with injuries, the monster caught up with them, mauling yet another one of them. Rob and Beth, the two remaining survivors, then seek refuge under a bridge. They recorded their last testimonies and pledged their love for each other, before the video feed was cut off, presumably by the bombing runs of the Air Force.

The most striking feature of this film is that it was filmed so that it resembled a home video. The entire movie was seen through the lens of a videocam, with different people operating it. I personally felt that this was a very refreshing idea, as it is totally different from mainstream movies. The video feed was made very realistic by inserting snippets from Rob's past recordings with Beth, as if one sequence was overwriting the other. Unfortunately, the creativity of the idea was undermined by the actual practice of it. Possibly due to producers wanting to make the movie more real-life, the camera was extremely wobbly and the view was swinging wildly. Granted, it added realism but it was really a sore to watch. The camera panning left and right was really nauseating and downright annoying at times.

Furthermore, some behavior of the characters is outright inexplicable. For example, Rob jeopardized the lives of himself and his entire family by deciding to rescue Beth, who was not even his girlfriend or in any way related to him. When they found Beth impaled upon a steel rod, they merely lifted her off the rod without any medical supplies and she could miraculously walk on her own. Even when braving through the dangers, Hud (Rob's best friend) did not let go of the camera, even when it was clear he needed another free hand to keep his balance. The most irking thing was that there was no explanation as to why there was a monster in the middle of New York, and I keep getting the feel that it was just there for the sake of producing a movie.

Cloverfield's new movie perspective has backfired, in my honest opinion. I can recognize the creativity but it has not translated into an appealing movie experience. That aside, this show has its plus points - good acting, an attractive cast and some decent action sequences, but do not expect anything spectacular.

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