Cloverfield

Year of Release: 2008
Genre: Fantasy / Thriller
Rating: PG-13 for for violence, terror and disturbing images.
Director: Matt Reeves
Starring: Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, Odette Yustman, Margot Farley

Date Of Review: February 2008

“Cloverfield” is a disaster film with a difference. It is unlike any disaster film that you have ever seen before. It comes with a gimmick. If you like the gimmick, you will love the film. If you don’t like the gimmick, then the fun ends very quickly. “Cloverfield” has been released as a mainstream A-list film, something of which it is not. To me its look and feel is B-Grade, more like an experimental student film that has been padded out to feature length. The gimmick is that we the viewer become the eye of the camera for the full duration of the film. For the first 15 minutes, it is novel, after that it quickly becomes tiresome. The shakiness of the camera and the poor framing can get nauseating to say the least. It truly looks like someone’s poorly shot home movie with a few special effects thrown in for good measure. “Cloverfield” is home video presentation from start to finish.

The plot, if you can call it a plot, revolves around a guy name Rob who is about to go away and work in Japan. A buddy of his is asked to film the going away party. On the night of the party there is a power failure and the partygoers are thrown into disarray when something much more terrifying than an earthquake is going on downtown. So we the viewer, are treated through the eye of the camera to a 90 minute home video of Rob and his buddies reacting to the disaster and distress that’s going on around them…… and that’s it. Let’s just say it all gets very annoying very quickly. Nevertheless, the filmmakers have obviously gone to a lot of trouble for this film, from the sets, to the special effects, to the monster and so on. Yes, it is a challenge to show all of these things in this home video format and yes, the filmmakers do a good job of it, but unfortunately viewers can only take so much of it. The bottom-line is “Cloverfield” is a one trick pony.

I believe that “Cloverfield” had enormous potential that was not fully realized. Shot in this renegade style, the film was always going to get mixed reviews or the gimmick would completely turn people off from viewing it altogether. However, if the filmmakers wanted to take their creative juices further I believe that they could have released 2 versions of the film. This one, as a quirky experimental film, that should have strong appeal with generation Y, and then another version of the film which would be the full-blown more traditional Hollywood-style disaster movie that shows the events properly and from a totally different perspective. They could have shot the film both ways, at the same time, and won an entirely new audience on the second film. The people that find the home movie style version annoying are sure to find the traditionally shot disaster tale more rewarding. Or better still they could have then released it as the “Cloverfield Experience”, combining both elements of the two films into one epic film. That could have worked also, possibly even more so. Alternatively, the other way would be to still keep the idea of the home video but at least structure it better. Make the script a bit more complex and at least show who was viewing the tape that we are watching, give them a voice, tell their story as well and come to a better resolution at the end by book ending it with some scenes revealing the aftermath of the viewing.

Sadly, in the end, all the hard work that went into “Cloverfield” was a missed opportunity. Ultimately, you don’t need to waste your time seeing this one in a theatre. Check out the DVD, watch 15 or so minutes of it and you will get the gist, if you like it, keep watching it, if you don’t like it then start using the fast forward button on your remote control to good effect. What could have been an interesting disaster film turned out to be one of the most over-hyped, nauseating film experiences of the year. You have been warned; the choice is now yours.

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