Going into this film, I thought it was going to be a stupid, boring cash-in on the found footage subgenre. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself being very, very wrong. This is Cloverfield.
Cloverfield is directed by Matt Reeves and produced by J.J. Abrams. It is a giant monster movie that’s done in the ‘found footage’ style of filmmaking, the first ever of its kind and as far as I know, the only one. I myself was never a huge fan of the found footage style. Maybe it’s because of the overload of Paranormal Activity sequels and all the other awful movies of its kind that flood theaters and dare to call themselves ‘horror’ films. There are two exceptions to this, however. I did like Europa Report, which I have reviewed on this blog, and the other is… well, Cloverfield. There was a film that came out in 2015 that was sort of a found footage movie, called Unfriended, and while I have yet to see it, it does still look interesting. But Cloverfield has to be my favorite of the found footage subgenre, and I now ponder deeply at night as to why I didn’t see this movie earlier.
I have an odd kind of history with this movie (most of which involves me not actually watching it until a day before posting this review). Many years ago, in 2007, a very peculiar movie trailer was released. It looked as though it was shot with a home video camera, and it shewed the Statue of Liberty’s head being thrown into the streets of New York City. It gave the release date of the film, but not the actual title. As good as a marketing strategy as it was, in retrospect, the 8 or 9 year old version of myself wasn’t too sure what to think. At the time, I thought it was another American attempt at a Godzilla movie, but I couldn’t find any real information about it online. I soon learned that it was something else entirely, and I didn’t know what exactly to think of it.
Ever since, this movie has been a mystery to me. And with my increasing displeasure in found footage films, I’ve always turned away from it. But then I started loving J.J. Abram’s work on Star Trek and Star Wars, and the sequel to Cloverfield, titled 10 Cloverfield Lane is to be released a couple weeks from the time of posting this review. So that’s why I decided to give it a try now, and I am very glad I did so.
The plot centers around a group of young partiers in New York City. Late one night, as they’re throwing a friend of theirs a goodbye party for a job in Japan, disaster strikes. An oil tanker is flipped, buildings explode and crumble, and as seen in the trailer, the Statue of Liberty’s head is tossed into the streets of Manhattan. Nobody knows what’s going on. All they can guess is that something is trudging through the city and bringing the whole place down around them, and they need to get out of there as fast as possible. The whole movie is shown in the ‘found footage’ format. The character that holds the camera most of the time, called Hud, is played by T.J. Miller. He catches all the destruction, horror, and drama of the fateful night, and doesn’t hesitate to try and make light of the situation from time to time.
This is one of the few times where I thought the found footage style made the movie work so well. If Cloverfield was shot cinematically, it would probably be a lot more generic and unimpressive. The cinematography as it is made the film much more engaging and interesting to watch. For the first time in a giant monster movie, the destruction is shown as close to the perspective of a civilian as possible. It’s cool to see Godzilla or something like him breathe fire over the town in a grand wide shot, but never before has the true fear and horror of the people he’s stepping on been captured in any movie. The camerawork, while purposefully shaky and ameteur-looking, is excellent. You see just enough of the main monster to get a vague idea of what it looks like, but you also see so little of it. The creature is shown only in quick glimpses from below or from far away, veiled in smoke.
The characters are perhaps the best part of the film. They’re not the heroes. They don’t save the day by conveniently finding out what the creature is, where it came from, or what its weaknesses are (like in many other monster films). They’re not even important people. They’re simply a small group of young adults that are scared for their lives trying to not get killed by the creature. My favorite part about these characters is that the movie doesn’t focus on one person to have the audience root for, because they’re all equally scared and helpless. On top of that, each of them are likeable people, and it’s easy to get attached to them and genuinely hope they make it through the night. These characters add a certain vital edge of tension that is absent from most giant monster movies that I’ve seen.
One other major thing about the Cloverfield that I loved was that nothing is revealed. By the end of the movie, you, the viewer, the audience, know as much about the monster’s origins as the characters do throughout its whole runtime. There’s not much I can spoil in this review because of how little is revealed. Nobody knows if the monster is an alien, or if it’s a government experiment, or a prehistoric beast woken up somehow… nothing is known. This is a GOOD thing, however. The scariest thing to us is the unknown, and if we know everything about the monster in the city, then it takes away from the fear factor.
Because of the great tension and fear factor, I was able to be a lot more invested in this movie than I ever thought I would be. I was in love with every second of it. I loved the characters, the actors were awesome, the ambiance and sound was fantastic, there was a genuine sense of horror throughout, and it is overall an enjoyable experience. If you want a truly different kind of giant monster movie, then this is one that I highly suggest. If you want an actually well made found footage film, then this is it. It’s the absolute best of both worlds, and I guarantee you’ll have tons of fun with it.
FINAL RATING: 42 / 50
STORY: 4 / 5
ACTING: 4 / 5
CHARACTERS: 4 / 5
SPECIAL EFFECTS: 4 / 5
CINEMATOGRAPHY: 4 / 5
HORROR/DRAMA: 5 / 5
TONE: 5 / 5
ENJOYABILITY: 5 / 5
REWATCH VALUE: 3 / 5
OWNING VALUE: 4 / 5
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