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Cloverfield

I don't care what I said - I wanna see the monster more!
Starring: Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, Odette Yustman
Rating: 10/10
Directed By: Matt Reeves
Runtime: 84 minutes

OK, the fan boy buzz is finished, the wait is over. Cloverfield is finally here, and we can see what the hype was all about.

This was one of the best kept secrets of recent movie history, especially considering the amount of buzz it generated. No one knew what is was going to be about, we didn't even know the name of the movie AFTER we had seen the first trailer. I was excited about it, but I did manage to keep my head above the fray, refusing to get caught up in the "what is it going to be" discussions, because frankly I didn't care. The movie was produced by J.J. Abrams, and that was good enough for me. Then, near the release date, we learned a few things. It was named Cloverfield, but no one knew why. It was a monster attacking Manhattan, but filmed as a POV piece. And according to one person standing in line at the theater, it was Godzilla meets Blair Witch meets Dawson's Creek.

What was it? Awesome! That's right, I said it. Awesome.

Just to be clear, it was not the greatest movie of the year. It is not going to change the way films are made (I hope). But it is a different, unique take on a genre that has grown a little stale. Cloverfield is a monster movie. It has a monster. A huge, terrifying, destructive monster straight out of Lovecraft. And yeah, everything you would expect to happen is happening. The military is summoned in force to fight it. Politicians are freaking out. Scientists are trying to figure out what it is and where it came from. But we see precious little of that. That's what every monster movie in the past has done. And that's where Cloverfield is different. Cloverfield is all told from the point of view of a small group of 20-somethings who are caught in the middle of the carnage. In other words, this movie is about what would happen to YOU if you were there. We see nothing the characters wouldn't see. We know nothing the characters don't know. It's got style. If you'll let yourself get lost in the concept. it creates a paranoid tension that serves to make the film an experience rather than passive entertainment.

We run, we hide, we grieve over friends and family that are killed. We try to find friends who we got separated from. We see the monster at times, but let's be honest, we wouldn't stand and stare at it. We'd see it, and we'd run like hell. Away from it. So yeah, we see the monster in this movie, but we never get a really good, long look (at least not many). I'd have a hard time describing the monster to you.

I loved this film. It had it's flaws. Some of the POV scenes where the characters spoke to the camera were forced, the romantic sub-plot was a little trite. I do not believe that a woman in pumps, who is running from a gi-normous monster, dodging rubble, climbing stairs, would walk through a store and not grab a pair of tennis shoes. But that's just nit-picking. The monster is amazing, trumped in recent history only by the beast from The Host. The concept was great. There is blood, there is destruction. The special effects were amazing, especially considering the modest $20 million budget. At the end of the movie, we still have no idea where the beast came from, why it's here, what it is . . . or what the hell happened. Did humanity triumph? Hell if I know. And for once, I didn't care.

I've got a feeling the fan-boys are going to be complaining about this movie. And that's cool, I get it. It's what they expected. But damn it, maybe it's time we stop and love a movie for what it is, what it's meant to be, and not what we hoped it would be. Cloverfield delivers, and left me excited to see what Abrams will do with his next project - Star Trek.