“Cloverfield” Review: A slightly different kind of science fiction.
Date: June 17, 2008
My main reason for watching “Cloverfield” was that it used the style of filming that it did, of which I am interested in (i.e., media within media). From friends, I’d heard mostly positive things, and well, their positivity wasn’t misplaced, in my opinion. “Cloverfield” delivers in a unique and mostly effective manner. Throughout the film, I found myself nervous, uncomfortable, paranoid and even a little claustrophobic–all this, and I was just watching on a television. I can only imagine what it was like in theaters.
What I liked about “Cloverfield” was that, with a few exceptions, it felt quite real. Enough time is spent on character development, even through the strange filming method, that you find yourself in the typical mode of identifying with the people you are watching. Then there is the action–and what action it is! While indeed some disbelief must be suspended to allow for the character recording all this to always be where all the action is occurring, it is still good. Overall, it is a nice balance between realism and what you expect to see in a movie–not too many of the dull and boring moments of life that always occur, yet just enough to make more of it seem realistic.
Without spoiling anything, I will say that I was happy with the ending of this movie. Because of the pace and attitude of the film, the ending worked well and seemed “right,” and it is obvious that a lot of thought was put into the entire “package.” Re-watching this would likely result in my finding a number of things I missed the first time around.
I think “Cloverfield” deserves a lot of accolades. It isn’t a perfect film (few, if any, are), but it is entertaining and works well in its nonlinear format. I’m interested in seeing more films like “Cloverfield,” that immerse the viewer(s) and take on an almost first-person video-game-like aura.
For those interested, here’s the original and official trailer.
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