| Let's talk about "Cloverfield." That clever reinvention of the Japanese monster movie which is opening in theaters nationwide this coming Friday.
Why call "Cloverfield" a reinvention? Well, for decades now, whenever Godzilla stomped through Tokyo, you (as an audience member) always observed that action from a distance in a long shot. So when that man in a rubber suit knock over some buildings ... It was entertaining and all that. But you never really got a sense of what the true stakes were. What it might actually felt like to have a skyscraper-sized creature stomping through your city.
Well, "Cloverfield" is about to change all that. For this Matt Reeves movie puts moviegoers down on the ground right in the middle of the action. Thanks to this film's clever conceit (i.e. that you're watching footage from a hand-held camera that was recovered from the scene of the "incident"), you're there at street level as this enormous bat-walking-on-its-hands-like creature lays waste to Manhattan.
Which -- I know -- makes "Cloverfield" sound like "The Blair Witch Project" on steroids. But this J.J. Abrams production is so much more smarter than that. It uses its first 15 minutes to quickly sketch out all the characters that you need to know ...
- Rob Hawkins (Michael Stahl-David), this rising young executive who's about to leave NYC for a new job in Japan
- Beth McIntyre (Odette Yustman), the girl that Rob has loved since college
- Jason Hawkins (Mike Vogel), Rob's brother who's throwing a going-away party with the help of ...
- Lily Ford (Lessica Lucas), Jason's fiancee
- Hud (T.J.Miller), Rob's best friend who's been tasked with camcording testimonials at this shindig
- Marlena Diamond (Lizzy Caplan), the sarcastic girl that Hud keeps hitting on
... as well as giving us the backstory (i.e. A few weeks ago, Rob & Beth finally slept together. But Rob then blew it by not calling Beth afterwards. So she's since moved on). Through the viewfinder on Hud's camera, we watch Rob & Beth have a fight and she storms out of the party. Then -- as Jason sits with Rob & Hud out on the fire escape, counseling his brother to go after the girl of his dreams -- that's when the earth begins to shake. And all of the skyscapers that we see in the distance briefly lose power.
And from that point on ... All hell breaks loose. Some sort of enormous creature emerges from the depths in New York Harbor and -- after knocking the head off of the Statue of Liberty -- then begins ripping apart the city. And as Rob, Hud, Jason, Lily and Marlena try and flee NYC, Rob gets a phone call from Beth. She tells him that she's injured & trapped inside of her apartment building. And then the battery on Rob's cell phone goes dead.
And from that point forward, "Cloverfield" becomes the story of Rob's rescue mission. How -- in the foreground -- he and his friends try and make their way through this mangled version of Manhattan in order to save Beth. Meanwhile -- in the background -- this mega-monster and the U.S. military do battle all over NYC.
Now I know that this monster-in-the-background idea may frustrate some moviegoers. Particularly since you never really get a clear view of the entire "Cloverfield" monster over the course of this motion picture.
Oh, sure. Over the course of the film, you see footage of the monster that's been captured by newscopters that are hovering above midtown. But given the angle as well as the speed of the creature, you only get a brief glimpse of its enormous tail and haunch before it then disappears behind some buildings.
Another time (Thanks to that hand-held camera), you're in the middle of this truly intense firefight. And then -- for one brief moment -- the creature's ginormous T-Rex-like head looms above the street ... And then Hud, our cameraman, wisely turns his lens away from the action and seeks shelter.
It's sudden camera moves like that may put off those of you who are prone to motion sickness. But that said, this shot-entirely-on-a-hand-held-camera look gives "Cloverfield" a sense of reality, a you-are-there quality that no Japanese monster movie has ever had.
In fact, given that we now live in a post-9/11 world ... I sometimes wondered -- as I watched "Cloverfield" -- if Abrams, Reeves and screenwriter Drew Goddard hadn't gotten the details too right. That huge grey cloud of dust that came rushing down the street after the monster knocked down a skyscraper, or how those individual pieces of paper continued to flutter down long after the creature had torn through a neighborhood ... Those visuals seem all too familiar to those of us who watched in horror as the towers fell.
Though -- that said -- that may actually be the biggest compliment that one can pay the "Cloverfield" creative team. That these film-makers made it seem all too real. Whether it was the method that Rob, Lily and Hud use to gain access to Beth's collapsed apartment building, the soldiers' terminology in this picture (Beware the "Hammerdown Protocol"), right down to the idea that all of the footage that we see in this movie was accidentally taped on top of an earlier recording on Rob & Beth. One that was taken at a much happier time. Which effectively bookends this film.
All this plus the amazing effects work of Tippet Studio (working -- along with half dozen other effects houses in Hollywood -- off of Neville Page's Creature Design) -- make "Cloverfield" a movie you won't soon forget.
I mean, there are so many amazing setpieces in this motion picture. The destruction of the Brooklyn Bridge. That walk through the pitch-black subway tunnel (More importantly, what's crawling across the ceiling directly behind our heroes). The almost-escape by helicopter. Hud getting up-close and personal with the creature ... As well as some genuinely funny bits of dialogue (i.e "It's time to leave the electronics store," "Something else. Also terrible") ... It's kind of hard to believe that Reeves, Goddard and Abrams were able to cram so many laughs & scares into a single 84-minute-long movie.
Putting it simply, "Cloverfield" is a monstrously entertaining motion picture. If you're in need of a thrill ride but can't get to Anaheim or Orlando anytime soon, this is the film that you need to seek out the MLK weekend.
Your thoughts? --Jim Hill
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Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
Five young New Yorkers throw their friend a going-away party the night that a monster the size of a skyscraper descends upon the city. Told from the point of view of their video camera, the film is a document of their attempt to survive the most surreal, horrifying event of their lives.
