1-18-08 Project Cloverfield - Warning! Spoilers

Cloverfield crashes into many European theaters this weekend and I was curious on what the critics on the other side of the pond thought of the monster movie. By now the spoilers and pictures of the Cloverfield monster are all over the Internet so the mystery is lessened for anyone who can use a 'Google' search.

The ridiculous never looked so real. But the film’s early rush of oh-my-God fear fades as Rob and co cross the city. The drama dissipates; the scare factor slackens. The film’s realism gives it authenticity, but it undermines the making of great movie movements. Reality loathes dramatic licence.

The movie is at its best when it navigates the dark streets flooded by a panicking and injured multitude not knowing whether it is running from or to the frightful something that is out there. The approach of seeing the events through the shaky shooting skills of one of the protagonists relieves the story of the obligation to tell from where the monster comes, although characters speculate about the ocean depths or outer space.

No one is going to see Cloverfield expecting a cinéma-vérité exploration of disaster psychology. But they might expect better handling of the source of the terror; the filmmakers lose their nerve a little towards the end and include some aerial shots from a helicopter, the upshot being that when we properly see the monster we giggle at how traditional and almost cartoon-looking he is. It would have been better if he was more abstract or if, say, the island itself started to mutate and coil into a monster.

JJ Abrams, best known as the creator of Alias and Lost, has acknowledged The Blair Witch Project as an antecedent for his latest brainchild, Cloverfield. If Blair Witch was a YouTube horror film, Cloverfield is the YouTube monster movie. Once again a youth with a camera spends 90 minutes filming the terrible things befalling him (and, on this occasion, the entire population of Manhattan). He sticks to his task for posterity, of course, not realising that if he put the camera down, he could run a whole lot faster.

Had Japan’s Toho studio embraced cinéma vérité in the 1950s, Godzilla might very well have created even more film history. As it is, we’ve had to wait 50 years for Cloverfield, a creature feature filmed with hand-held cameras (aided and abetted by CGI) that successfully takes the monster genre to an entirely new level.

Despite the novel approach, there's a lot of things about this monster movie that are a little too familiar. It seems that every few years Hollywood likes to bomb New York, although they always start with Manhattan, never Queens or Brooklyn. And a Manhattan seems strangely stripped of older, less gorgeous people.

Whatever the criticisms, though, Cloverfield delivers more bangs for your bucks than the average blockbuster.

(via The Vulture) So far, most of Cloverfield's reviews tend to write it off — or praise it — as a simple movie about a giant monster biting a hole through greater Manhattan (and lots of Manhattanites). But could it be something more? Maybe!

The Voice's Nathan Lee reads deep, positing that Cloverfield is a "death-to-New-York saga" and a comment on the accelerated yuppification of New York following 9/11. The movie, he says, "enacts its deft simulation of that infamous September morning in order to brutalize the society that flourished from its ruin like some tacky, tenacious, condo-dwelling fungus." Times economist Tyler Cowen thinks along similar lines but suggests it's more a slap at the social-networking generation, writing on his personal blog, "[T]his is a movie about how the young'uns have no tools for moral discourse and that all they can do is utter banalities and take endless pictures of each other and record their lives for no apparent purpose. I can't recall any other movie that so completely devastates its intended demographic." (more)

Rob, Hud, Beth, and Lily try to reach a Midtown safety area. This clip first appeared on Yahoo! last night and is now available online. Sadly, this clip has been edited down to take out the scenes with the Monster. In this scene the group is actually running toward the helicopters to get to safety and they keep running into the Monster. (source)

Last night was the much-anticipated midnight release of J.J. Abrams's Cloverfield, and, being that the guys at New York Entertainment's Vulter we're huge nerds, they decided to ask viewers to talk about the film. New York's David Edelstein liked it, but what do moviegoers think? Was it as good as they'd expected? How was the monster? Did the cinematography make anyone throw up? Watch the video and find out!

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!)

I would like to thank a reader for being able to provide me with a review of Cloverfield. I've gotten hold of a few reviews so far and this one by Mitzy is a great assessment of the movie. I've been able to confirm a lot of these story points and Mitzy does a great job of summing it all up for you.

The Cloverfield review contains everything you need to know about the movie. Yes, it is full of spoilers so if you want to be surprised on 1-18-08 than resist the urge to click the link below. Mitzy gives a great description of the storyline, the Cloverfield Monster, Slusho, Tagruato, the movie's timeline, and the ending.

• Cloverfield Movie Review (Spoilers Alert!! ) >

If you are looking for clues and possible spoilers to the Cloverfield movie be sure to check out the UnFiction forums. They are good at pointing out spoilers so you won't get ruined by mistake. One good thing is that people who have followed Cloverfield and the viral campaign are giving their honest reviews. It's good to see how a non-paid critic views the flick. Here's one from a guy in Philly who just watched the film

• Cloverfield Review from Philadelphia(Spoilers Warning)>

Note: Today was the first official day of screenings across the county. We should be flooded with reviews and spoilers tomorrow!

Yahoo! Movies has posted a new 1:52 long clip from Cloverfield. This great clip features Rob and the crew trying to get to Beth's apartment. The one problem is that the Cloverfield Monster has sorta gone bonkers on the building and it's not looking so stable. There are really no spoilers and no monster sighting. The clip shows us the characters and how much Rob will go through to save Beth. Including jumping off the roof of a skyscraper.

• Exclusive Yahoo! Cloverfield Clip - "A Bad Idea" >
  

Ben Lyons of E! Online gives us a quick review of Cloverfield. You've already read the title to this post so you know he likes it.

IESB.net has landed some great Cloverfield material. There are interviews and clips with different cast members as well as a few other cool things.

The IESB has got a bunch of goodies for all the CLOVERFIELD fans out there! On set interviews with J.J. Abrams and more plus behind the scenes footage!

An early Cloverfield Movie Review exemplifies how a viral marketing campaign can fail. This review by someone who calls themself Comrade Che seems more interested in talking about political views than movies.

Comrade Che also showed up for the film highly unprepared for what was about to happen. Whether this is the fault of the reviewer being unprepared or the viral marketing failing is a new point to consider. How many people will be jumping in line for Cloverfield expecting a mainstream movie?

I don't expect every review to know about the Cloverfield world or even audience members to accept the handheld look of Cloverfield. But this reviewer should at least look at the press release before doing a review.

"Cinematography is, unfortunately, terrible in this film. Most of it seems to have been shot on hand held video camera or something - the perspective wobbles and shakes around, robbing audiences of the true horrors they experienced in their livingrooms on 9/11."

Other than phoning in this review for Cloverfield, Comrade Che did give the film 10/10.

• "A Film Marred by Bad Cinematography": an Early Cloverfield Review >
  

Reed Tucker of the New York Post takes a look at Cloverfield from a different point of view. He looks at the different signs that point toward Cloverfield's doom.

The first, official main-stream Cloverfield movie review (that I know of) has surfaced. The mystery and speculation is gone from trying to guess the validity of reviewers and random posts.

AICN's Harry Knowles has seen the Cloverfield movie and has been kind enough to post about it. AICN is a legit and very big site so you can take this one to the bank. To sum it up without spoilers, Harry was blown away by the movie and claimed it was "a bold genre-reinvention unlike anything we’ve ever seen before."

He compared it to Saving Private Ryan with Monsters instead of Nazis.

You can catch the full review linked below (spoilers warning) and know that security was tighter than ever for the screening which means you most likely won't be seeing a screen cap of the monster before next Friday.

• Harry knows what CLOVERFIELD is!!! (Full review-Spoilers warning!!) >