My thoughts on Cloverfield
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I saw Cloverfield this past Saturday with the wife, daughter and daughter’s friend. It was actually part of a secret little trip I’d planned where we dined at Claddagh, did some very light shopping then saw the movie at a DLP theater about 45 minutes from home.
Before we talk about Cloverfield, let me tell you another story first.
I was on a cruise recently and got sick from feeling the ship rock back and forth. I became part of the religious cult known as "Those Who Wear That Patch Behind Their Ear," and said patch worked wonders. If you’re not familiar with it, there’s a little patch you can get from your doctor that you wear behind your ear that helps with motion sickness and, in the case of being on a cruise ship, sea sickness.
"But Shawn," you might ask, "what does this have to do with Cloverfield?"
The above matters because even CNN is talking about Cloverfield causing motion sickness. It didn’t affect me, though. My wife, daughter and daughter’s friend, however, all got sick. The wife had to leave about 20 minutes into the movie because her stomach just couldn’t take it. The other two ended up just watching bits of the movie (and sometimes just sitting with their jackets over their faces) but didn’t get to see the whole thing.
That being said, I enjoyed Cloverfield. Well, at least the parts with the monster. And, by "with the monster," I mean the parts where stuff blows up and buildings get wrecked. The storyline and characters left much to be desired and I was more interested in seeing the players get assaulted by the monster than seeing them triumph and save the day, or escape alive, or whatever your goal might be if you lived in New York and a monster attacked.
Other than the lackluster story and characters, my major disappointment with Cloverfield (WATCH OUT, SPOILERS AHEAD, TURN AWAY NOW!!!) was that we get to see too much of the monster near the end of the movie. I wanted it to stay mysterious. Let my imagination fill in the holes left behind by the fleeting glimpses of the beastie in the distance parading between buildings in Manhattan.
Instead, our three intrepid filmmakers come face to face with the monster (between us, I was happy to see Hud get his; his near-lisp drove me nuts) which removed any ability for my imagination to run wild. I got to see the little pink inflatable sacks on its head inflate and deflate as it breathed. Too much detail for me.
Cloverfield was a first-person, shaky-cam movie that should have continued to take its lead from The Blair Witch Project, where you (OH NO ANOTHER SPOILER FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN’T SEEN BLAIR WITCH YET!) never actually get to see the witch. I’d have preferred to never see a full-on shot of the monster. I’d have rather stayed scared of power-deprived New York (okay, I was never actually scared, but you know what I mean), shut down by a monster who, if you look closely enough, you see crash into the ocean in the next to last scene of the movie (via a flashback clip).
Catch a matinee or see Cloverfield on DVD (if you have a good enough sound system; the sound is great) but avoid a full priced evening showing of this one. It’s good, but not $10 good.
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Thanks to Slashfilm and todaystmj4.com for the images.
Have you seen Cloverfield yet? If so, what did you think?
