You have to hand it to
JJ Abrams. He is a marketing genius. For the last seven or eight months nerds all over the world were frantically pouring over every piece of information released about
Cloverfield trying to find something, just
something that would give them a clue about what was going to happen. What was the official name, was it really
Cloverfield or was that a working title to send people the wrong way? A monster film? So what is the monster going to look like?
Cthulhu,
Gozdilla? Is it a remake?
Abrams would appear to be good at one thing, from what we’ve seen with
Cloverfield. Not to mention what anyone who watches
Lost will tell you. He is good at answering questions with
more questions. The film seems to exist as an advertisement for some sort of larger story, and
Abrams merely allows us a small glimpse at the good stuff through a fish-eye lens.
Now, until the next one is no doubt released, we are all going to be asking where the monster came from? How did it get there? Why was it so angry at New York? What happened
after the film ended? What’s happening in the rest of the United States, and world? Where did they manage to find batteries with such amazing life?!
At first the characters in the film were quite annoying, before you realise that the reason for this is the realism of the film. In the beginning you are really just watching normal people with a hand-held camera, just like a home movie. It doesn’t matter who you are, home movies are generally not going to be entertaining. After a short while you warm to the characters once you realise you aren’t watching a bunch of superheroes.
You quickly realise that this is a whole different type of monster movie. It’s not your average King Kong or Godzilla film where the focus of the film is to follow a group of people while they save the world and kill the monster. This is a film where these people’s main aim is to get the hell away from the monster. It’s entirely refreshing, but isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea.
It’s worth noting that the film is only 84-minutes long, but that you won’t complain about this. It seems to be the perfect length for this film since it keeps the plot together tightly, with minimal filler. I can only hope that Abrams is quick about releasing sequels to expand on the story of Cloverfield while it is fresh in people’s minds.
Short review: Action-wise it’s like the amazing long scene at the end of
Children of Men only longer, but if you didn’t like waiting to see the shark in
Jaws you probably won’t like this.
Out now.
IMDb.
Official Site.
