Cloverfield

To say that there was a lot of hype surrounding the release of Cloverfield is an understatement.  The trailer for the move debuted in front of Transformers this past summer and since then, there's been a pretty extensive (and really mysterious) viral campaign on the web that's been drawing people in ever since. 

The movie follows a group of twenty-somethings who are throwing a going away party for one of their friends (the viral marketing played a significant role in the back story here).  During this party, the unthinkable happens:  a freakin' huge (and unbelievably cool looking) monster attacks New York City.  The movie then follows this ever whittling group of friends as they try to make their way across Manhattan to save a trapped friend and then off of the island.  Throw in a few chills, jumps, and a little comic relief and that's pretty much it.

OK, so a lot of people didn't like the way this film was shot.  Those people are wrong!  The whole thing is filmed with a home video camera a la The Blair Witch Project - and it works beautifully!  The perspective they got with the handi-cam made every experience so interesting and personal and at times terrifying.  Sure, the camera movement was jerky at times and peoples heads weren't always in the frame, but hey, that's the way home movies end up lots of times. 

This movie is really intense.  Aside from the first 20 minutes which are spent introducing the characters, etc (which was done rather cleverly considering the "home movie" style), the film is non-stop.  Basically, there are moments to catch your breath once or twice between the big action sequences, but aside from that, you'll be gripping the armrests like there's no tomorrow.  Seriously!

The monster in this movie is unlike any that you'll find in other monster movies. This thing is totally gnarly (wow, that's a completely under-used word). 

So, a word on the viral marketing.  There's so much to sift through to get the entire gist of the viral stuff, but here are the basics:  this guy Rob has gotten a job as a VP at a company called Slusho which is a frozen drink that has a really bizarre website (trust me, bizarre).  They are a subsidiary of a company called Tagruato which also has some deep sea oil rigs/drills.  One of these rigs gets attacked by something on the open ocean and is totally destroyed.  It's all pretty cool, but didn't really help you understand anything in the movie.  It was however successful at getting folks hyped about the movie (at least the internet/movie blog community).

Now, questions, questions everywhere, and not an answer to be found.  The thing that people will find most troubling about this movie is that it asks more than it answers.  You never find out what in the hell this monster is or where it came from for instance.  Then there's the scene at the end of the movie (a flashback of sorts) where something can be seen plummeting into the water off of Coney Island in the background.  Is this our mysterious monster?  Did it come from space?  Who the hell knows?!  And what's more, who cares?  Just go with it - it's a giant monster of unknown origin beating the hell out of New York City - and it's really cool.  There's also supposedly a small clip of audio at the end of the credits that when played backwards (really, who has time to capture the audio then play it backwards) says "Its' still alive".  That obviously leaves things open to a sequel or is it just the filmmakers giving the fanboys something to argue and muse over?  I guess only time will tell.

This movie is bad-ass!  Get over the motion sickness thing and take some dramamine before you go if you have to, but this movie is really entertaining and totally worth the cost of admission.  It definitely lives up to the hype and is destined to be a classic monster movie.