Posted: 01/20/2008

Cloverfield

(2008)

by Matt Wedge

Ever since its trailer debuted last summer before Transformers, the film that eventually became known as Cloverfield has been the source of a lot of mystery. Thanks to an ingenious marketing scheme that kept the true plot and identity of the central monster a secret, it has become a rarity for a January release: a true event film. Does the finished product live up to the hype? Yes and no.

Events begin sedately enough with home video footage of a going away party full of perfectly photogenic 20-somethings. After fifteen minutes of party footage where the main characters are given the sketchiest of personalities, all hell breaks loose in the form of a giant monster that begins a rampage through downtown Manhattan, destroying buildings and decapitating the Statue of Liberty. While trying to leave the city, Rob (Michael Stahl-David, TV’s The Black Donnellys) gets a panicked call from his would-be girlfriend Beth (Odette Yustman, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story), telling him that her building has been damaged and she is trapped in the debris. Ignoring warnings that they have to evacuate, Rob heads back into the heart of Manhattan, intent on rescuing Beth. In perhaps the silliest plot twist in a movie that features a giant monster leveling a city, three of Rob’s friends decide to follow him back into harm’s way.

But we all know the plot doesn’t matter. The question is, does the movie deliver on the destructive monster goodness? For the most part, yes. Just like the original Godzilla carried a horrific reminder of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for the Japanese, the scenes of New York being destroyed offer a sickening familiarity with the news footage of the September 11th attacks. The immediacy that the handheld video camera lends to these scenes also gives them more of a visceral punch. Likewise, a harrowing sequence that takes place in the subway tunnels is made all the more unnerving by the lack of lighting and the frantic spinning of the camera as it only catches brief snippets of the action.

The monster, while only seen clearly for a few moments in the film, is an imaginative creation that is equal parts its Toho ancestors and Lovecraftian in its design. Possibly even more frightening are the waves of smaller creatures that drop from the monster’s body, swarming over the military and civilians that get in the way of the rampage.

But once the initial shock of the attack dies down and the film settles into a search and rescue story, the tension and suspension of disbelief take a nearly permanent vacation. It becomes more and more difficult to believe Rob’s friends would continue to follow him into ridiculously dangerous situations. This has as much to do with the underdeveloped script by Drew Goddard as it does with the weak casting. Stahl-David is bland in his leading man role, lacking the charisma to effectively play the type of guy that people would willingly follow into almost certain death. As for the rest of the cast, it’s hard to tell if their failure to make any impact is their fault or their character’s lack of depth.

Another problem lies in the fact that the film, while it is supposed to look like home-video footage, occasionally looks too directed. There are numerous times when the action is perfectly framed to catch some monster action or character moments. Plus, it becomes increasingly difficult to believe that the group would continue to carry the camera and shoot as their situation becomes more and more dire.

While the action and suspense sequences certainly pack a punch, the inane characters and dull, rescue the helpless girl plot drag the movie down. It’s worth catching for the monster design and frighteningly realistic destruction of New York, but in the end, it fails to add up to more than the sum of its impressive set-pieces.

Matt Wedge is a freelance writer and film critic in Chicago.

Got a problem? E-mail us at filmmonthly@gmail.com