Movie: "Cloverfield"
Year: 2008
Rated: PG-13
Genre: Action / Adventure
Directed by: Matt Reeves
Writing credits: Drew Goddard

Reviewer: Protoclown
Posted: 1/20/2008

Plot: A giant monster rampages through New York City, and we follow the events of destruction through a camcorder held by one of the characters.

Review: Let me get this out of the way right off the bat: if the idea of an entire movie shot with a shaky camcorder style bothers you, or you can't get past the fact that it's basically nothing more than one long extended gimmick, you will not like this movie at all. If you did not like The Blair Witch Project or are prone to motion sickness, turn back now, and do not waste your time.

If you can, however, get past all that, Cloverfield is a pretty enjoyable big-screen experience. Maybe it's just that I feel they've been done to death, but I'd rather watch this revamped modern kind of monster movie these days than see more of the same old thing. Yes, some of the situations that the characters survived were a bit ridiculous, and there were instances where the cameraman did not possess enough hands to juggle all the things he was supposed to be doing, but it's easy to forgive those sins when you're drooling over eye candy.

The most annoying part of the movie for me wasn't the shaky camera, but rather the all-too-long opening sequence designed to introduce us to the characters and make us care about them. The problem is that it dragged on well beyond the point of reason and failed to achieve its purpose anyway. The only character I remotely cared about at all was Marlena, and that was only because I thought the actress was attractive rather than finding anything compelling about her character.

This weakness is perhaps not as debilitating as it would be with most other movies, because with the first-person perspective, I don't have to care about any of the characters--I'm along for the ride, so I feel somewhat invested in the action regardless. For those of you who want to see massive amounts of chaos and destruction (and why else would you want to see this movie?), I have good news: there's plenty of it, and it's as jaw droppingly impressive as you would expect from a movie about the destruction of the biggest city in the US.

For the longest time, the filmmakers tease us with mere glimpses of the monster, which is frustrating, yes, but it only serves to generate more interest--we're in the dark as much as the characters are. We learn as they learn, and there's a lot left unexplained by the time the movie's over, as it probably should be.

One little gimmick that a lot of the audience may have found annoying but that I really appreciated was that occasionally the tape would cut back to a previous recording of two of the characters. This seems pointless at first, but in the final shot the reason behind it becomes clear, and it's actually kind of a clever way to end the movie.

Cloverfield is not exactly a thinking man's movie and I'm not sure how much replay value it has, but if you're going to see it, for god's sake, see it on the big screen, because that's the only way to see a movie of this magnitude. If you can get past the issues I mentioned in the first paragraph, it's definitely worth seeing.

Overall rating:
(Scored on a 0.5 - 5 pickles rating: 0.5 being the worst and 5 being the best)