Cloverfield (2008)

Cloverfield (2008) Movie Review

The build-up for this release has been immense, from the secretive non-title to the intense trailer released last year; so anyone wanting to go see it was expecting a movie to match the hype.

So does it!? - Sadly No.

The premise is good, using the lead characters Leaving Party to set up characters, relationships and most importantly the use of the camcorder before the chaos begins. The use of some of the camera angles are interesting too, helping to create the confusion of the situation and allowing the viewer snippets of the Monster (a leg here, a tail there) allowing you to try and piece together what is this creature destroying the City.

However this is where the interest wains.

The camera work is too clean (like it’s shot in HD), so you do not get the feeling of any realism of the situation, with the character ‘Hud’ (who after a while starts to sound like Will Ferrell) opting to keep filming rather than dealing with the perillous situations the group are in because he was told to be the ‘camera operator’ at the beginning of the movie!

The movie tries to create a narrative (& purpose) from within the chaos for the lead characters but unfortunately the characters are wooden, boring and uninspired (with Lily & Beth seemingly interchangeable) so you don’t really care what happens to them and simply want them to run into the Monster to see what is happening to the City!

As the movie starts to run out of ideas & places to go, they conclude with a predictable ambiguous conclusion and throw in a few clear shots of the Monster so not to upset anyone who came to see a Monster Movie (although this is poorly executed making it seem as though the Monster has changed size - which the director has tried to defend).

The movie was interesting in idea and attempt but ultimately (partly due to the mass hype) fails to deliver what the audience was hoping for…

by Matt Hew