Right On The Right

Well, I haven't done a movie review in a while. Actually, I haven't done anything but dissect the race so that I can help prevent another Billary Presidency, so this should be a welcome shock of relief. I saw Cloverfield last weekend, and I decided to write about it now since Ace and Bryan Preston both just weighed in on it. I'm not much for rating movies on a star system, so I suppose I'll say it's on my top 20 favorite movies ever, which is a pretty big accomplishment. Let's get to it.

Warning: Movie Spoilers Beyond This Point.

First off, everyone that has written about Cloverfield has talked about the shaky camera. I have to say, only if you have ADD will the camerawork both you, and it's because the movie's action will draw you in and make you ignore the shotty angles. Hell, most of the time, the shotty angles give Cloverfield the realistic element that makes it work so well. When J.J. Abrams was touting the movie, he said he made it because there hasn't been a real American monster movie. He said King Kong was just a giant ape. That sums up his view on creating this bad boy, and once you see it, you'll see just how right he got it.

The movie opens up with the ending revealed, sort of. You essentially know from the get-go that this thing isn't ending well, so you can mentally prepare yourself through about 15 minutes of boring scenes that serve to introduce the film's funniest character, Hud, the cameraman. The only reason you can stand these 15 minutes is because you saw the preview and you're waiting for the attack, and because from time to time Hud loses focus on what he's doing and the camera takes an unexpected turn towards some chick's chest. Like I said, it's realistic. You get a basic who's who amongst the characters, then it gets into the action, and you're in an entirely different movie.

The trailer's short depiction of the attack is expanded upon, and there's a decent build-up before you see a significant portion of the monster. My friends weren't exactly impressed by the actual monster creation, but I was, mainly because of it's ability to wreak havoc without being overtly silly, much in the way we look at King Kong and Godzilla now. The simple nature of the monster makes it work. The military responds to the attack, just as you'd expect, with rockets, machine guns, tanks, and bombs. Their efficiency however is hampered by their unwillingness to truly knock the creature out until they can properly evacuate as much of the civilian population as possible. That strategy rings true because that's what our military does, it's who they are.

Several scenes make the movie absolutely memorable. Without giving too much away, a quick scamper through the subways, a walk through central park, and the first time you see two buildings they know they have to go through. You won't forget these moments, and they make Cloverfield stand out in your mind. It breaks the mold when it comes to horror, because it's not exactly scary, and monster movies, because it's not exactly predictable. It also breaks the mold in film-making because the you're in the movie perspective hasn't been pulled off before as well as it could have.

In closing, I thought the movie was great, and I'm definately picking it up on DVD (if not heading back to the theaters to see it again). My expectations were pretty high, and I can't say Cloverfield beat them, but it was an entirely different movie than the one I expected. Characters seemed real, the plot was engaging, and most importantly, there was a big ass monster. Go see it.