oddlight

a Cloverfield review

I went to see one of my most anticipated movies last weekend, Cloverfield, JJ Abrams take on the monster film genre.

This film is quite complex (dare I say postmodern? I do!) in the way that it deals with storytelling. The camera is the true storyteller here, no voiceovers from Kevin Costner explaining the finer details and wrapping everything up nicely at the end.

This film throws us in the deep end, we have no introduction to warm us up, we, like the characters are soon going to be, are set to make sense of it all and find our way with wits alone. Except we have popcorn, and they do not.

Early on, while still in the party at the apartment, we are participants in a conversation between Rob and Hud (on the ever-present handycam) where Rob expresses great disappointment that Hud is recording over whatever tape was left in Rob's camera.

First impression is that this is a throwaway scene, but it's actually integral to the full story, as the previous footage on the tape interjects in a couple of key scenes throughout the movie to just rattle us that little bit more. The fact that these people had lives and hopes before this catastrophe drums home the realism that, although this is a monster movie, horrific situations could happen to anyone at a moment's notice.

What I think this movie portrays successfully is the way different types of people react, and how really, the true test of us all is not how we react when everything is going well, but when it all comes crushing down.

This film has enough frills & spills to keep anyone remotely interested in the genre glued to their seats.

The one fault of Cloverfield is also one of it's blessings: the camera work is very jumpy, and if you get motion sickness easy I will go as far as saying that you will hate this film. In fact the only detractors of Cloverfield I have spoken to are those who did find that the camera work made them ill.

I did not get ill, and I loved it.

Oh, I think one person said they didn't think it was realistic, I disagree, but marking down a sci-fi film because it is not realistic is like marking down a romantic comedy for being mushy. Scifi does not exist to be realistic, it exists to make us imagine new imaginings.

I give Cloverfield a 8.5/10.

.. pssst, and don't forget to stay for the secret snippet after the credits ;)