Cloverfield

Dir: Matt Reeves

Apparently this is the work of producer JJ Abrams (the guy who was behind 'Lost') and Drew Goddard (who wrote some of the 'Lost' episodes) and if your familiar with that, then you'll note a few connections with this. In 'Lost', the monster was always off camera/never explained and the tension was always created by suggestion rather than obvious special effects. Here the monster is always lurking off camera, and the special effects, whilst obvious (its a giant monster in Manhatten after all) are done in a way which supports the suggestive nature of the film rather than as a foundation for a weak plot.

This film is also full of obscure clues as to what exactly is going on and why (another similarity with 'Lost'). Blink and you'll miss them though which can be annoying as the whole film is meant to be seen through the lens of a hand held camera so the picture is all over the place (at least 20% of this film is random blurred images and panned shots that move so fast that your left with a lot of vague impressions and very little information. It works quite well since you get the feeling that your watching real chaos.

The only real problems with this film that I can see lie in the nature of the story. First there is the non linear story format, which having no closure, leaves you in the dark and second, there is the strange sense of the absurd as Godzilla meats reality TV (thats not a spelling error. Its just my little pun). In one sense it works since thats the whole idea of the film, but in another, I couldn't help noticing how conveniently the camera angles were. I don't think any one so obsessed with documenting a giant monster attacking New York would consistently fail to film the actual monster, espcially as this particular monster appears to be continually stalking the camera man... but thats just me being critical I guess. No doubt if a huge mutant gullit attacked Århus and I happened to have my camera handy, I probably wouldn't hang about to film it either...


One last point... towards the end of the film a B2 stealth bomber is seen dropping some pretty heavy ordanance on to the creatures back, and yet it not only survives this, but appears to survive in good health. I know its a finicky, military nerd type observation, but I couldn't help thinking that, given the size of the monster, a J-DAM bomb would be the equivalent of me being hit by a 40mm grenade... I know Godzilla type monsters are meant to be tougher than old boots, but that was a little bit too much given the otherwise 'realistic' nature of the film.

I liked it.