Movie Review: Cloverfield
Directed by: Matt Reeves
I saw this movie a few nights ago, along with Amazing Grace, John Rambo, and Alien vs. Predator 2.
Cloverfield sucked. I’m demanding of the films I watch. I don’t know if I’m overly accountant-like or something but the way I see it is that I only have so much time and that time I want to spend on things that are worthy of it. So when I watch a film it has to be worthwhile for me. The film has to outrank the other things I could do with that amount of time, usually that’s reading or being outside or talking to friends.
Well Cloverfield certainly did not meet the requirements. It was nauseating, what you read in the paper was true. When I first learned of this film I was under the impression that the camera action would be done tastefully to give the impression of handycam-ness. That is, that it would be shaky and bouncy but still show the important scenes and give the viewer a breather every now and again. Well, let me tell you, half the movie is carried by dialogue because the camera is pointed at the ground or sky. This kind of effect is nice once and awhile to give that burst of adrenaline as if the you’re the one running it gets old after you watch pavement flying across the screen for eight to ten minutes. I think they really did just use a handy cam without any direction from anyone.
The acting was good, no problems there but the story was… well lame. I understand that the film was attempting to put the viewer into the shoes of those on screen as much as possible. They do this by giving no information about the monster, you get very little information about anything, as one would expect in real life. The problem is that it gets very boring quickly. It’s akin to putting a camera in a jail cell for 6 hours and telling the audience: this is how it would be in a jail cell. It may be true, it may even get the emotions across very well but human nature seeks change, especially in a film. When Cloverfield shows me nothing but scary monster and people running it’s tense for a bit but runs its course quickly. This of course also means that there is no “story” for obvious reasons.
So on the whole, I was very disappointed in the film just because it was boring. The paring down of characters, as they all died one by one, also got formulaic and tiresome. Everything about the film was just boring. I would have to say that film should have been a video game, then it may have been fun as the viewer would actually have some interaction with the whole enterprise.
I let you guys know what I thought about the other films later.