It's old news...but I wrote a review of that movie Cloverfield

[Steerpike]

Cloverfield: The Monster from the Internet

It’s been a few weeks since I took my wife and kids to see Cloverfield at the local cineplex. My wife, who is generally hard to please, liked it. But, she thought the shaky hand held camera work detracted from the overall experience. Both my pre teen children loved it. They seemed generally terrified at all the right parts and ate their popcorn in an almost hypnotic manner. My reaction was only slightly more nuanced. I liked the movie, but I felt like there was too much plot missing.
My biggest complaint was the camerawork. All the jerky movements and blurred shots got old after the first five minutes. I was bored to tears watching poorly shot asphalt and off kilter shots of running feet. Let’s face it, it’s a gimmick. And the gimmick of subpar cinematography did not enhance the theatre going experience one little bit.
The plot of Cloverfield (or what passes for a plot) revolves around an extremely attractive group of twenty-somethings who brave impossible odds to rescue the male lead’s ex-girlfriend. In a major suspension of belief, the erstwhile group inexplicably heads towards the center of the city as a gigantic mutant ravages New York, eating people and knocking down skyscrapers (and eating people).
Unforutnately for me, Cloverfield’s script borders on incoherence, as it explains nothing. And, believe it or not, this is one of the things that fascinated me about this movie.
The main plot points and explanations do not exist in the film. They exist on the internet.
The producers of Cloverfield have set up a series of internet sites that provide the answers to most of the questions posed in the film. Now these sites all fit into the mythos that the makers of Cloverfield have created. The sites include on line comic books, fake Japanese corporations, soft drink ads and more. If you visit all these sites and take in all the content provided therein the movie will suddenly come into focus. This is ironic considering how out of focus the actual movie is.
The producers of Cloverfield have taken the “Blair Witch” concept and taken it up a notch.
This is not a film release in the classical sense…this is a true multi media event taking full advantage of the internet. Maybe that’s why it is hard for me to like this film. It takes personal time and investment to truly appreciate it. You can’t just sit in the theatre and watch the movie, not if you want to understand what’s going on. You have to research it on the internet and read thruough all these related websites. You have to invest time and effort outside of the movie going experience in order to understand the film and what happens.
After visiting the connected internet sites I now understand the movie and what it’s about. So I’m enjoying the film much more, after the fact. I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether or not that’s a good thing. since it seems to me that I should be able to enjoy it fully while sitting there in the theatre.
So in the end I will give Cloverfield 4 stars out of five. The film deserves that rating if nothing else for the sheer innovation of its packaging.

[Steerpike]

1. This thread sank fast.

Maybe I should have included sexually inappropriate pictures of the monster.:dilemma:

[Steerpike]

2. I googled cloverfield monster and this is what I got.

Funny I don't remember it looking quite like this.