[Movie Review] CLOVERFIELD
I’ve never puked in a theater, but I came pretty darn close here.
By request, this review will be SPOILER FREE for you folks across the pond who haven’t had a shot at this yet. As such, this review will be pretty short, but I’ll try to give you my impression of this film without spoiling the film for you.
The number one question for me going into this film was, “Can Cloverfield live up to the Internet buzz?”. My answer? No. That’s not to say that Cloverfield is a bad movie. It’s an alright movie, but this isn’t a movie that will be getting a second viewing from me. The movie does a lot of things right, and a LOT of things wrong, so I’ll give you a quick once-over without going into every minute detail.
The film begins in a rather boring fashion as you get introduced to the group of young, rich, Abercrombie and Fitch model-looking folks that are followed through the film. Right off the bat, I found this to be a problem. I have nothing against having hot, rich people in your movie, but this made it difficult for me to root for their survival. These weren’t your average, everyday folks caught up in this battleground. It’s a group of yuppie idiots running around, screaming “Oh my GOD! Oh my GOD!!!” for a little over an hour(this movie is REALLY short, BTW. I saw it at 7pm and was back at my car well before 9pm). I didn’t feel badly for them when the stuff hit the fan. The only one who is even mildly interesting is the character of Hud, who is the one holding the camera, so he’s rarely seen. He’s got some funny lines here and there, but other than that, there’s nothing of note about any of them. There is also an INSIPID Dawson’s Creek-ish love story inserted into the movie in a way that I won’t give away, but I was rolling my eyes through all of that material. Remember how Godzilla In Name Only had that stupid love crap with Ferris Bueller and that annoying chick? Know how much better that movie would have been without that crap? Cloverfield suffers from the same syndrome. All this movie needs is a big monster wrecking crap while the pretty folks run away, but they insist on inserting this love story in that is COMPLETELY unnecessary.
The movie does a good job when it gets down to terrifying the audience. I do not scare easily, and I was freaking out at times. There are points in the film where it more than does its job, but these points are lost amidst some pretty terrible dialogue. I know these are supposed to be “real” people and not actors, but we all know this isn’t real. It’s a movie, and I was constantly reminded of this by some pretty atrocious dialogue. Just when I thought that I could get engrossed in what was going on, one of the A&F kids would say something incredibly stupid in a way that reminded me of material in a student film. A film student could have made this movie, and probably done it better. At least get actors that could deliver those lines convincingly. There’s points where I could “feel” the acting, if you get what I mean, and it was pretty distracting. At one point, a character tries to offer comfort to another, and it sounds like the worst acting I’ve ever heard in my life. The people in this film also get over some pretty traumatic events at an abnormally quick rate. I don’t know about you, but if I saw someone die right in front of me, I wouldn’t be boo-hooing like I’d just stubbed my toe. I’d be delusional with grief. You’ll know the scene when you see it, but a character who is supposed to be a completely traumatized wreck on the phone just seems like he found some bird doo on his Aston Martin.
I’m not going to tell you what the monster looks like except to say this: when you see flashes of it here and there, it is some pretty scary stuff. When you get a good look at it, it is pretty friggin’ laughable. Honestly, I laughed out loud at what I saw, but other people have told me that they liked what they saw. That’ll be up to you to decide, but for me, it didn’t do the trick. I can see why they decided to hide the thing in the marketing, because it’s just…yeah…
If you get motion sick or hate shaky cam, this is NOT the film for you. I dislike shaky cam, but it was used effectively in this film. Problem is, the entire film is shaky shaky shaky, and I literally had to stop eating my popcorn because I was feeling queasy. It adds to the sense of realism, but it is a little overdone at times. It’s also pretty unbelivable that the canera could survive some of the crap that happens in this film, but I guess you’ll have to suspend disbelief. But wait…if this is supposed to be “real”, then should we really be suspending disbelief? Hmm…
So, overall, it’s okay. I had some fun with it, but the crap outweighed the fun for me. It’s got some good scares and the effects are pretty good, but ultimately, it’s a pretty forgettable flick. It’s worth a matinee, but it’s nothing to jump the moon over.
Credit Counseling - Credit Consolidation - click fraud protection - United Specialties
3 Responses to “[Movie Review] CLOVERFIELD”
Removing the love crap from GINO, wouldn’t have made it any better.
I honestly thought the monster looked great. I wouldn’t say the entire film is “shaky, shaky, shaky.” It’s really only in the running scenes, where it gets really shaky, outside of those the camera work was pretty steady. But then again I wasn’t bothered by the shaky cam at all.
I was gonna say that in the review that GINO needed a lot more help than just removing the love crap, but any help is still help
For the first time ever we’re at polar opposites in terms of opinion on a film Kris. I didn’t think the acting or dialogue was as at all bad as you made out! As you can tell from my review. I give it one more than you! Each to their own I guess. Ha Ha!
Trackbacks
What's Your Opinion?