Film Bites

Something has attacked New York city and a digital video camera discovered in the aftermath acts as a documentary of what happened. The camera, originally belonging to Rob Hawkins(Stahl-David), captures the events before and during the attack. Starting with Rob’s going-away party, Hud(Miller) records the actions and reactions of Rob’s closest friends as they band together, first to get out of the city, then to save the love of Rob’s life, Beth McIntyre(Yustman). Little does rob know, the tape in the camera is that of his fondest memory with Beth; their day-trip to Coney Island, which peaks through the action and drama as the tape is played back.

Cloverfield’s first trailer was shown during Transformers, at which time, it was simply the untitled film that showed an attack on New York and the date 01.18.08. Being the king of viral marketing, J.J. Abrams setup a very elaborate scheme to keep the film, and it’s monster, a secret until opening day. Shooting under a cacophony of working titles to keep everything under wraps, Abrams was mostly successful at building the suspense for the film.

Sadly, I think the film didn’t live up to that suspense. Going into the theatre, I knew Cloverfield was a monster movie. It had previously been suggested that this was going to be ‘America’s Godzilla’. Knowing that, you are treated to a film that isn’t so much about the monster, but the actors in the film about the monster. While it is an interesting and unique story, it really leaves nothing known about the monster itself. The cliffhanger may have been what J.J. Abrams wanted. Currently, Hollywood is very good at milking a franchise for all it’s worth; the Cloverfield monster seems to be destined for a similar fate as Saw and Spiderman.

The acting in the film was surprisingly well done, considering all those cast were relatively unknown. The actors didn’t actually know what film they were trying out for until they agree to join the project. The special effects were very well done at both a large and small scale. Scenes containing large landscapes of New York had as much detail as scenes shot in a subway tunnel.

I do have two gripes with the film though; first, most of the film was shot without a steady-cam. This leads to the very home-movie feel for the film, which is horribly nauseating. Multiple times I was forced to cover my eyes to settle my stomach, not from the gruesomeness, but from the jarring cinematography. The second issue I have with the film is with the idea of switching between the videos on the tape. A DV tape, as is suggested to be used in the film, doesn’t behave in the way it is show in the film. While recording over a tape, there isn’t a way to stop recording while keeping the tape playing without manually forwarding it. The seamless switching between stories doesn’t make much technological sense.

Other than my personal gripes, I’d say Cloverfield is an interesting monster movie. Plans are already in the works for a second film due out in 2009. Be prepared for another installment, and be sure to stock up on Dramamine before viewing.