Cloverfield

Monster movies have a certain attraction to the public with their extreme action, goofy/overly political subtext commentary and a plethora of city terrorism and destruction that can be viewed with rose-tinted glasses in order to appreciate the extreme mayhem without any of the moral dilemmas that might come with disaster movies (watching Godzilla destroy a city does feel different than watching a flood do the same thing). They have a special place in certain people’s hearts, but many understand that they have a certain formula that needed some altering if it wanted to adapt to the newer generations. The 2008 film Cloverfield is one such idea. Recently broken up couple Rob and Beth (played by Michael Stahl-David and Odette Yustman) meet up at Rob’s going-away party made by his brother Jason (played by Mike Vogel) and his girlfriend Lily (played by Jessica Lucas) for his new job as a vice-president of a company in Japan. Things go well until the city is suddenly thrown into chaos by a giant creature attacking the streets and causing a citywide power outrage and extreme panic. The four along with their friends, Hud (played by T.J. Miller), who documents the entire situation, and Marlena (played by Lizzy Caplan) must find a way to traverse through the devastated city, survive the night and avoid the gaze of a Godzilla-sized monster. Taking a unique perspective for this kind of film with the use of a found-footage documentary style (otherwise known as cinéma vérité), Cloverfield captures the confused paranoia and scattered terror of being an extra within a monster movie. It doesn’t go full satire, but it still very clearly takes influence from past examples like Godzilla and Rampage while constructing this film and gets credit for attempting that next push in the genre. While many of the problems surrounding found-footage movies as well as monster movies are prevalent in this film which hold it back from being truly likeable, overall, the concept, delivery and execution do leave an at least memorable, if very shaky experience.

The film is more heavily focused on the concept than anything else. Placing a first-person perspective in a monster-destroyed city is something that wasn’t really done before and could allow for an interesting viewpoint on a classic formula, and it really feels like the people who worked on this movie appreciated and loved the monster-movie genre and wanted to take it in a new direction. The idea came from J.J Abrams, who wanted to create a Godzilla-esque figure for America and became a producer on the film once Paramount Pictures green-lit the film. The trailers were clever in not showing the name and just focusing on the destruction of the city through a camera, it definitely would get audiences hyped for the film, and considering how this would eventually lead way to a franchise in the future, it definitely worked. Many found-footage movies don’t fully use the first-person aspect to their advantage, often feeling more like a gimmick to get some cheap scares, whilst in this film, this viewpoint gives the film a different perspective that gets down on the ground level of these kind of situations and places the audience within the frantic panic of someone witnessing kaiju destruction down below. It adds a more realistic element when the destruction and suffering is shown in more detail and with more realistic outcomes, and that gives the film a distinct atmosphere from other movies of its type. The director for this movie was Matt Reeves, who would eventually go on to reinvent the Planet of the Apes films in 2014 so he’s clearly a solid director and for only his second feature-length film, he does the best with what he has to work with here. With that said, while the angle has some possibility and leads to some fun perspective shots, the actual narrative is nothing special. Its main driving force is survival, which is expected in a film like this, but it also grows dull very quickly after the initial shock clears over. While a good premise, its not strong enough or interesting enough to survive a full movie, so instead of having the other intriguing elements of a monster movie like distinct goofy characters or wacky political commentary, it has rather generic characters in a straightforward ‘run and don’t die’ style plot. The movie is an experience feature by every sense, the plot and characters are very secondary, and the film doesn’t really go out of its way to create a fleshed-out environment. Being on the outside of a more interesting movie means that while it feels more realistic, it doesn’t make for an interesting survival experience.  The movie also has obvious anti-government messages but lacks that intelligence or cleverness to show it off in an interesting way.

The characters are basic bystanders that are victims to the event, which in many respects matches the more realistic feel the film is going for, but the trade-off is that they are very unlikeable. It has the typical tropes of many found footage movies with how the people interact with each other, there’s a lot of overly comedic lines and performances (despite never being funny), there’s a lot of pointless arguing that makes each person look irrational, stupid, or very hateable, the dialogue is awfully written and that can be distracting in something that is supposed to feel like real-life. The acting in the movie is very hit and miss, sometimes it feels genuine enough when they have to express fear or sadness, and other times many of them sound drunk on set. Michael Stahl-David and Odette Yustman particularly don’t work as the two leads, as both have some really odd line deliveries that never for once second feel genuine and always feels like a performance and not someone in actual danger (which is especially noticeable in a film like this). T.J. Miller is also given some very forced lines that don’t hit their mark at all (especially since he’s supposed to be the comic relief), and his ineptitude and constant repeating of lines makes him pretty unbearable to sit through, but other than that his performance is passable if nothing special for him. However, Jessica Lucas, and Mike Vogel do fine in their parts and Lizzy Caplan (arguably the biggest star in the film in a cast of otherwise no-name actors) actually does a pretty good job as the character of Marlena, taking what is a pretty much nothing role and pretty much feels like the only character with any sense of substance or intrigue. The characters can’t quite go too far in being wacky, diabolical, or interesting like in true monster movies because it’s going for a more grounded approach, so it sucks out the entertainment and even cinematic appeal that could come with characters that were meant to be memorable rather than authentic, but for this kind of realistic approach, the every-person dynamic does make sense at least.

The effects aren’t as frequent in this movie as suspected as most of the locations are shot in real areas while the backgrounds and monster were obviously computer-generated in later. The monster is not shown in close up until the end of the movie and even with the reveal, it surprisingly doesn’t look that bad and even the design of the creature done by artist Neville Page, while nothing that extreme, feels like it gives the monster a stand-out designs when compared to more of the traditionally designed creatures, with its contorted body shape and bug-like appearance, while nothing as creative as the old designs, it’s still a nice looking one. Many of the buildings are obviously CG’d in but even that doesn’t take away from the impact of what is happening to the city, and obviously with a CG city means the buildings can look a lot more broken than they actually are. The writing probably doesn’t feel like a big impact to this kind of film, but it needed either a really realistic or really entertaining style of dialogue that could give the film a likeable atmosphere where the characters were more connectable. Most of the comedy doesn’t work very well, the drama feels a bit too cinematic to be taken seriously, and many of the lines are repeated way too often that it gets annoying after a while. The writer of the film Drew Goddard also helped write for movies like The Cabin in the Woods and The Martian, both products that work better with their concepts and where the writing had a stronger presence while still being a movie with a distinct style, this film couldn’t go far enough to leave a memorable line. The film also has moments of bad shaky cam done by cinematographer Michael Bonvillain and while for this kind of movie and situation, a little bit is okay, but it gets really tiring after a full hour of witnessing git. The film surprisingly lacks real scares for something that should offer up at the very least a feeling of panic and paranoia, but the found-footage clichés of jumps scares and things jumping at the camera aren’t around to compensate (even if they are also pretty lame) and the lack of presence from the monster, while good for build-up purposes, means that the actual shots of seeing a monster stomp through the city with people dodging and fleeing in terror is missed out on.

Cloverfield isn’t a movie that challenges the monster movie genre and overall, it has a fair share of problems, but for what the concept is, it’s a fairly decent attempt. For something that looks very small-scale and underground, the film was critically well received when it came out and earned $1172.4 million against its $25 – 30 million budget, showing that it did connect with people enough that it paved way for sequels, follow-ups, and fan projects later in the future. The movie was clearly focused on this one idea of shooting a monster movie from the ground-up and wanted to bank on that selling, and even if not flawless, it gives an interesting turn for a standard formula. If anyone saw the trailer and was intrigued and wanted to see it, it will deliver exactly want you’re expecting, nothing more nothing less. It’s nothing compared to other kaiju movies, but for a simple test run of an idea, it was a good attempt. Not a lot of monster fighting, but enough destruction to satisfy the crazed hungry fans, check it out and see if it’s the right amount of shaky cam for you.