Cloverfield Reviews

really just call it godzilla dressed by hollywood and you've summed it up. except that it does little to tell you how annoying this film actually is.

the people who made this film would be ashamed if they hadn't of made so much money doing it. its the money thrown towards this thing that carries it anywhere because on its own merrits its merely adequate.

godzilla...i mean an unidentified monster from somewhere (which is what it remains throughout the film) is on the loose in manhattan for no apparent reason (also remains true throughout the film). first we have to endure the set up to this which is where the film really falls apart. its a going away party for a guy and his buddy is filming "testimonials" so he can not watch them (a point made in the film actually) when he gets to his new home in japan. this begins the filming style for the film; aka add "blair witch" to godzilla. its the worst, and unnecessary, thing about this whole film. every second is spent trying to make the film look like it was all done coincidentally as it happened and captured on camera. none of it is remotely believable mind you, but damn if they don't try every annoying thing about bad camcorder work to make the film look like total crap (i can't imagine the amount of time, effort, and money that was put into making a bad film will be something these guys will look back on and think that was productive)

then the monster shows up and everyone in the city is being attacked. entire buildings are being destroyed by the "30 story monster" (a quote from the making of). so they attempt to flee manhattan where apparently the monster wants to stay (it never makes since why only manhattan is where this thing will ever be). they are attacked again while walking over the brooklyn bridge. the small group of friends from the party, including the guy leaving, the buddy, a girlfriend the guy just got in a fight with, and the buddy's love interest, as well as a brother who dies on the bridge are seemingly followed by the creature. literally everywhere they go this thing shows up by coincidence (yes the filmmakers actually expect you not to notice this.). bunch of other stuff happens most of which is a least entertaining. none surprising, but watchable.

the acting is adequate, but their ability to be truly convincing, which would be necessary to pull this off, is simply not here. the entire premise is built around the main guy going back to "save" his lover. their is exactly no chemistry between them and almost no attempt to build it other than to set up the plot.

the monster; i don't get the design of the monster but whatever. its bizarre looking fine whatever. watching the dvd extras will show you just how off they were in their attempts for this movie. according to the designer, with the director, they made this creature to be a "baby" and "scared". there is exactly nothing in the movie that would so much as suggest either. this thing is huge, articulated in a way i doubt any baby creature would be, and a mean as hell vicious indiscriminate killer. in matter of fact it carries on it a number of small(er) fly like monsters that do a lot of the killing of people as well as spreading some sort've instant disease.

death sentence: for me what really drives the nail in the coffin of this movie is its all out lack of purpose. again the dvd extras explain that this is a homage to godzilla. they wanted america to have "its own iconic monster". no kidding they actually think they did this here. and if it is true it simply shows how shallow we are. its clear they watched the godzilla movies but its also clear they didn't understand them. godzilla is about a monster created from nuclear mutations. its famous ending warns against making more nuclear bombs (or material in general). the american godzilla if we are supposed to get it here...comes from nothing and destroys manhattan for some reason without purpose and isn't ever stopped (at least in this film). we get a lot of "isn't it clever" filming and "aren't they cool" acting with a few required meetings with beasts but nothing else. this movie is about as shallow as they come.

its not a horrible movie. its watchable if you can tolerate the awful camera work for 80+ minutes (oh yeah that was style right?!). however its shortcomings as a story make sitting through this once all you'll ever want to do.

Interesting. I really liked this. Didn't know much about it, so I thought it was going to be more than one home video, but was glad it was just one for the entire movie. Definitely worth watching, and I can see why everyone is looking forward to this one hitting the shelves on Tuesday.