Review: Cloverfield
© 01.25.08 By Cynthia Clearwater

Every now and then someone makes a movie that is truly outstanding. In-between those infrequent phenomena the mediocrity continues to flow through the theaters and on to DVD and into our living rooms for hours of brainless distraction. A few days ago I spent eight dollars for the privilege of viewing one of that endless flood.

In all fairness Cloverfield has some unique qualities that I've not seen recently in any other coffee table coaster. The first is obvious – and for some nauseating. The entire movie is shown from the view of a hand-held camera: first in the hands of Rob (Michael Stahl-David) filming Beth (Odette Yustman) as they plan a day together. It then jumps ahead and we find Rob's brother Jason (Mike Vogel) and Jason's girl friend, Lily (Jessica Lucas) are planning a fare-well party for Rob who is leaving for Japan and a vice presidency at a Japanese corporation. Jason is supposed to film the party and people's goodbyes for Rob but he pushes the job off on Hudson, (TJ Miller), Rob's best friend. Most of the time the camera finds it's way to Marlena (Lizzy Caplan) instead of focusing on the people who are wishing Rob luck.

When I first heard about the movie I was under the impression it was about an alien invasion. Unfortunately I had Independence Day in mind. Cloverfield was more a human drama with aliens in the background supplying the conflict and tension. Immediately you see this as Beth shows up at the party with a date and the uncomfortable situation causes frustrated argument which Hud, as the one documenting the party, tries to catch on tape. Angry, Elizabeth leaves and Hud and Justin try and give Rob "girl" advice.

Here we are interrupted by what seems to be an earthquake followed by the explosion of a building reminiscent of the 9/11 plane crashes. The frantic party-goers wonder if it's another terrorist attack. They rush from the building to find everything in chaos. The rest of the movie flows in the same direction as our characters try to survive the alien attack on the city. While the combination of the believable hand held camera documentation and the close focus payed to the main characters (letting the invasion remain largely unexplained), was interesting the movie was unsatisfactory for several reasons.

In nearly any piece of art it is possible to discover the employment of an age old theme; a spark of truth and light. While these glimpses of good among the bad are encouraging to those who wish to redeem every artistic effort, it is hardly worth while. Cloverfield was a poor movie. I'm not speaking of the technical aspects since I found the approach taken to filming and the focus of story interesting (though not easy to watch). I am talking about the theme of the film.

The darkness of the movie never lifts. It starts with confused and hopeless people who get drunk as a matter of routine and sleep around all the while wondering why their relationships aren't any good. It ends without having given any answers to the problems.

Regardless of the attention given to the main characters, they lacked the ability to draw you in. They seem empty even though the movie puts so much focus on them. While the film gave room for a wide range of emotions with the continued crisis, the emotions that ended up on the screen were only so much noise. It was a poor human drama against a worse science fiction. The film makers seemed more interested in shocking us then moving us as they added pointless scenes of blood and gore; one rather disturbing scene involved a main character who is bitten by an alien. This did not generate empathy, but revulsion. At times the movie felt more like a stock horror film then anything.

The movie ends abruptly which gives it the believable feel of being a tape taken by the characters themselves. The entire movie is narrow of sight and limited in explanation keeping within the limits of what the characters themselves know. While this makes it believable in one sense it ruins the science fiction aspect. We know little about the main characters; we know nothing about the aliens.

A poor attempt at SiFi a flat human drama and a little horror. This movie ends without giving any reason for its having been made. We see no point to it besides the wild and frantic images that drove motion sensitive viewers from the theater. It was a dark and empty film with mixed and unfulfilled themes. Save your money - and if you must see it, wait until it is available on DVD - and rent it don't buy it.