Cloverfield (2008) Reviews

• Sturdiest Hand-held Camera Ever!

  CSBurningDestiny2008-01-30

  ... I do not believe that digital camera survived a nuke. I'm sorry, there you go. That was the final nail in the coffin for this movie, it just heaps one immersion-breaking sequence of events after another. So, let's count off: Cloverfield stops just short of carving 'all the characters in this movie die!' into your forehead in the first 40 seconds of the movie, making it impossible to feel any sort of emotional attachment to them? Check. Magically-appearing army which arrives roughly TEN MINUTES into the monster attack despite the fact that one of the main bridges into Manhattan was destroyed not thirty-seconds earlier? Check. Monster can't be hurt by weapons? Check. This is forgivable, it's a trope of all giant monster movies. Most make some attempt to explain it... in Cloverfield, they just assume you'll go: "Oh, of course that doesn't work. It IS a giant monster, after all." Monster drops off little baby monsters (in this case, parasites) that only serve to pad the movie and give the filmmakers an excuse to film someone (literally) exploding off-camera with no explanation as to WHY said character exploded because of the bite of a little monster? Check. Exiting the subway into a conveniently-placed Army hospital? Check. Baby monster bite that, while severe, doesn't slow down any of the caste UNTIL the poorly telegraphed "I feel a little dizzy" followed by the above-referenced character explosion? Check. Skyscraper improbably leaning against another skyscraper without either of them collapsing? Check. Girl survives roughly six hours with a rebar spike through her shoulder without bleeding to death... OK, this one's plausible. People have survived weirder, and the rebar MIGHT have kept her from bleeding to death. Girl is capable of running not once, but twice, roughly ten minutes after being REMOVED from said rebar? Without being slowed down because of blood-loss, pain, nausea, or any other reason? Check. Monster pulls a 'Dragonball Z' and gets back up despite lots of bombs and a huge cloud of smoke? Check. Helicopter crashes in central park, and only the three main characters survive? Check. Guy and his girl fiend wind up together at the end, complete with useless and weepy Blair Witch "I'm scared, why is this happening to me?!" dialog? Check. Camera Footage survives a NUCLEAR ATTACK, despite the fact that a nuke's EMP will still erase digital footage even if it IS protected by a flimsy central park bridge? Check. ... and that's the whole movie. Seriously. Every scene contained something needlessly immersion-breaking which, coupled with the nausea-inducing camera-work made for a decidedly poor movie. If given the choice of being bitten by one of the little monster-lice from Cloverfield or watching the actual movie, I'd take being bitten. At least then, you'll only feel sick for about half an hour.

• Is this a joke?

  ilan-havinga2008-01-21

  What on earth is this movie doing with a 8.1/10 rating? I think I'm being kind with a 3/10. It is just as a big a disaster for me as its trying to portray(but fails completely) Now what puzzles me is why on earth would you go completely calm and focused towards an alien monster trashing the city with bombs being dropped on it? O please..to save a women who should have been dead but miraculously survives. She has a metal rod through her chest (or i think it was, with all that nauseating camera work) and should have died of loose of blood.... Now another thing i don't quite get is the camera...hmmm 10 hours of battery..yea, Captures all the good bits of an exiting adventure,HD quality and doesn't run out of battery or stop working from all the times its dropped and thrown in the movie! God i have to find a place where they sell these! And now onto the acting...acting? Its not hard to scream and look really scared which is all they do..they don't even need to look convincing because half the time the camera is trying to look really really realistic and is filming the ground. Now this guys best friend that is filming...i don't think i have come across a narrator that annoying. What does he do in the movie apart from saying..omg what just happened dude?..what was that?Dude this is scary. I mean what the ****?When he finally dies after miraculously surviving a helicopter crash with his friends i rejoiced! Sorry for not knowing his name but even now i don't even know who's who? Just don't bother with this movie, please I'm glad i only downloaded it first before going out to watch in the cinemas. You'll be wishing the movie to end so you can get on with your life.

• Duped by Excellent Marketing

  brc232008-01-19

  I have to hand it to JJ Abrams....we fell for this flick hook line and sinker. The only downside is it COMPLETELY lacked substance. There was NO story. We went to see a monster movie only to find out NOTHING...I mean NOTHING about it. It was about stupid people who were unwilling to leave the city...and then were killed. Big deal. In the end you didn't know how the monster got there, if they actually killed it, what it's powers were, what the little monsters were, where it came from, what it wanted....you never even got to see the entire shape of it or the use of all it's body parts. It is the only movie I have ever wanted to walk out of. I just kept waiting for it to get better. If Abrams ends Lost this way the world is going to come unglued!!!!!

• overrated

  jlira2008-01-21

  i went in expecting a scary monster movie. what i got was 15 minutes of bad TV dialog, and 45 minutes of shaky-cam running through the streets. the acting was OK but the characters were really unpleasant. not only did i not care if they died, by the end of the movie i was rooting for the monster. there were a lot of plot holes and the decisions everyone made were totally unrealistic. it was hard to stay in the movie because of the constant lapses of common sense and logical flaws. those kinds of things really annoy me when they could have been fixed with a line or two of dialog. finally at the end of the movie there were a couple minutes of cool special effects. the rest of the movie was a waste of time.

• sneak peek early screen

  nightswatch2008-01-10

  I attended an early screening 1/10/08 at Michigan State University. I've spoilerized in case anyone doesn't want to know anything about the film, but I will try to stay away from anything that'll be too overt. Simply put, the film is an amazingly visceral experience. It's studio logo, production logo, film. No credits whatsoever, which just adds to the overall immediacy of it. If you've been following it to any degree whatsoever, you know that it's shot entirely with hand-held cameras. The characters also run. A lot. So immediately, I think this will be a love hate experience. My own reaction to it was that it again, added to the immersion, and I didn't find it to be really distracting at all. Many people I saw it with said they couldn't even watch the screen at times, so buyer beware. It also will anger those who need all the details, and need to have every loose end tied up (or even a majority of them). The entire film is the tape found after the events of the film are over. That's it. There is no set up, and no hold-your-hand-for-you resolution (or really, much of one at all). It's unconventional, and I enjoyed the ending TREMENDOUSLY. I definitely have to applaud the decision to not simply make a cookie cutter action film that is easy to watch. I think it will be interesting to watch how it does at the box office though. After that...I feel like there isn't much that can be said about the acting, and that should be a credit to it. It absolutely feels like you are experiencing this with the characters, who feel more or less exactly like real people. After leaving the theater I was on edge for a good deal of time, as I tried to shake that level of immersion. The film is also surprisingly humorous, and I would say that our crowd laughed more than they screamed (although the screams were definitely there). Cloverfield definitely will not be everybody's cup of tea, but if you're already excited about it, I have no doubt that you'll be satisfied. It was a relatively unique experience, and again I want to applaud the decision to make it in that manner. Definitely recommended: 8/10