Movie Man
Cloverfield lives up to hype; movie '80 minutes of pure adrenaline'

By Andrew Kightlinger

Mirror Staff Writer
January 25, 2008

The latest hype machine is viral marketing, in which a movie’s ad campaign spreads like a virus, starting in small doses and then eventually overtaking multiplexes. Movies following this trend are J. J. Abrams’ upcoming Star Trek prequel and the next Batman flick, The Dark Knight. The first film to pull off this ad campaign is Cloverfield.

Cloverfield is the quintessential monster-attacks-big-city movie told from the view of a semi-drunk guy’s video camera. In the spirit of The Blair Witch Project, the military retrieves the camcorder, and we view the mayhem. Unlike Blair Witch, Cloverfield lives up to the hype.

The plot elements in Cloverfield are as old as Betty White, but the film succeeds in putting a spin on a tired genre. Lead character Rob is thrown a surprise “going-away” party before he leaves for Japan (get it?), but has no fun because the “love of his life” (Beth) is absent. (She’s on a date with another guy!) At the party, Rob’s best friend, Hud, videotapes interviews, much to the chagrin of those present.

The fun ends when an explosion rocks Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty’s head is tossed onto 53rd Street. No one knows what happened, but after receiving a distressed phone call from Beth, Rob must race against time to save her life. Of course, Hud tags along with his infinitely-charged digicam.

What ensues is 80 minutes of pure adrenaline. Rob & Co. brave subway tunnels full of parasitic creatures and avoid the mighty step of a brilliantly designed mega-monster. Cloverfield’s gimmick made me queasy at first, but once the action got going, it was unnoticeable and it felt real and unrehearsed.

The filmmakers wanted the audience to feel what it would be like if something terrifying and unexpected happened in their lives (like pseudo-Godzilla attacking NYC) and they happened to have a video camera in their hands. Cloverfield manages to take an old idea and turn it into an original, spine-tingling techno-thriller with state-of-the-art sound design. There is some social commentary about mankind’s reliance on technology, but otherwise, it’s pure fun.

My only quibble with Cloverfield is that it makes me yearn for a balls-to-the-wall, special-effects extravaganza of a monster film with big stars and preferably produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Cloverfield finds a three-and-a-half leaf clover and gets a ‘B+’. Also check out Korea’s The Host, one of the best monster flicks.

ALSO: Sweeney Todd (A+), I Am Legend (A-), Alien v Predator: Requiem (D), Charlie Wilson’s War (B). NEXT TIME: The best and worst films of 2007.