1-18-08 Project Cloverfield - Warning! Spoilers

After 6 months of fake websites, unknown titles, and a mysterious monster that may or may not be Godzilla it comes time to actually view Cloverfield. I secured my midnight showing tickets and headed downtown to catch the event. It's hard to imagine any film living up the amount of hype that Cloverfield has received. However, I came out of the theater completely satisfied.


J.J. Abrams (producer), Drew Goddard (writer), and Matt Reeves (director) teamed up to bring the Godzilla saga to the States. "Cloverfield" is a modern-day "Godzilla" built around underlying allegories just as the Japanese classic. The concept of Cloverfield was to modernize the classic monster-destroys-city genera and it succeeds with honors. While Godzilla had nuclear war, we are left to place the Cloverfield Monster into our society. The Monster itself can stand for a wide array of various issues. Or if you want it's just a big-ass monster destroying Manhattan.

Technology is the tool Matt Reeves uses to bring Cloverfield to the modern audiences. The strength of the movie lies in that technology has updated the way people see the world. Reeves brazenly displays that fact for all of us to see and digest in unaltered bits of video. This new attitude toward recording events as they happen takes its style from the 9/11 attacks and more so the homemade footage of war torn Iraq. It's doesn't take much to imagine the more chaotic scenes from the movie being set in Baghdad.

Cloverfield is a smart and savvy update on a tired genera. Director Matt Reeves created an instant pop culture reference point with Cloverfield. The way studios make and market movies now has a new benchmark.

Cloverfield was produced on a tiny budget of $25-30 Million with a cast of unknowns and will easily be the most profitable movie of the year. Hype alone will get its money back in the first week. J.J. Abrams and crew knew their target audience and hit them directly with a bullseye.

The beauty of Cloverfield is it doesn't try to be much more than an account of a tragic event. Central character Rob Hawkins has everything in his life taken away from him. He struggles through a night where he witnesses the death of most of his loved ones and friends. That's more than most people can take.

Rob and the rest of the characters end up leaving a visual record of how they ended their lives. The way people record disastrous events and share them with the world changed the style of film making as well as the storytelling. The social networks and viral videos have created a new generation of filmmakers. People who want to share an experience in an intimate way.

Cloverfield wisely loses the blackboard moments where a military leader or scientist explains the facts that have led up to the event. In typical J.J. Abrams you will probably leave the theater with more questions than you enter with. The back story of the characters is kept rather vague to keep with the moment-in-time style. Instead of long narratives and deep back story you jump right into the fray with the characters as they are at that exact moment.

You learn about them from that instance in time on. With the world crumbling around them, Reeves doesn't spend time flushing out their life history. Instead, you are left to take out of the film only what is viewed on the camera.

The same goes for the Cloverfield Monster. No moment arises when people really know what's going on or where the Monster comes from. Instead, they are simply reacting. The military doesn't know how to stop the Monster and will sacrifice the entire island of Manhattan to stop its carnage. The cast of Cloverfield is not there to stop the Monster by any means. Instead they are racing against the clock to survive. Rob will stop at nothing to find Beth and each character has the choice to turn around at some point but stays with the group.

Cameraman Hud continues to film the night's events because he believes it is a story that needs to be told. When the Statue of Liberty's head rolls to a stop people whip out cameras and cell phones to preserve the moment. We also lose the conveniently ended story where the couple kisses in the sunset. No sunset here, folks. Only the blast of a nuclear bomb and tons of rubble.

The only real storyline setback is the forced love story between Rob and Beth. While I loved the older tape under the tragic events portion, the lack of character development does hinder this type of storyline. The two characters just aren't flushed out enough to really empathize with Rob going into the Gates of Hell to rescue Beth.

There are 3 main drawbacks to consider before viewing Cloverfield. First, the film is shot entirely in the hand-held mode. The film clocks in around 73 minutes (plus another 12 for the end credits) which makes the YouTube-style cinematography bearable. Just be warned if this is not your type of film. There's no way I could have lasted 2+ hours like this! I enjoyed the new take on the monster movie and the style didn't bother me at all.

Second, if you are a true fan of the Clovefield viral world you will be very upset. It plays almost no part in the film. There's no Slusho (other than Jason's shirts), no Tagruato (unless you count a 1/4 second logo on a burning oil tanker, and no Jamie and Teddy. Jamie appears for roughly 1 second passed out drunk on a couch. This is a heavy blow for people who have vested months of questions and research into following the mysteries of Cloverfield.

Finally, the ending is questionable. You either like it or hate it. Because of the nature of the movie, the ending takes an odd turn. Rob and Beth are near ground zero for the end and the camera footage of the attack stops. It cuts to the tape running out as the two are at Coney Island a month before. Then fade to black. That left a lot of people grumbling in the theater after the lights came on. Personally, I like the ending and thought it fit rather nicely into the style of the movie.

A few quick answers for pending questions. Yes, you do see the Cloverfield Monster. There are plenty of shots as it destroys the city as well as a nice, solo shot in the end of its head. Also, there is no soundtrack. Cloverfield tries to cling to a reality-based account of the attack and thus the soundtrack is ditched. It works for this type of movie. However, my favorite part of the movie is in the end credits. Composer Michael Giacchino actually does music for the film. He gets one song in the end credits and makes the most of it. "Roar! (Cloverfield Overture)," has it all! It's what every action, monster, and drama film should have in their credits. Take a few minutes to sample it after the movie ends.

Also, the film also takes place on May 22. No year is mentioned but it is not far off from now. Even though you can still go to the 1-18-08 website and see they still tag their pictures as taking place on 1-18-08 you will have to suspend that fact and go with the new spring timeline. And yes, the door is left wide open for a sequel.

Overall, Cloverfield is a fun and wide ride that will assault your senses. It is fast and furious and redefines the monster movie style. I know most of my visitors who have been with me for awhile are going to see the movie regardless. I truly hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

I also just want to say thanks for everyone that stopped by this site. I never dreamed of how big this movie or my little blog would get. I would never have guessed of all the big sites who picked up my posts or that I would even be doing interviews for newspapers. It's all humbling and has been a real fun time.

As a token of my appreciation I have a link to a video that will show you a quick 20 second clip of the Large Cloverfield and Small Cloverfield Monsters, should you wish to see what they are before you see the movie.

Enjoy!

• Cloverfield Monster Video (Spoiler Alert - The Real Deal!)