released 01 may 09 / last mod 01 may 09 / greg goebel / public domain
* The 2008 live-action movie CLOVERFIELD, produced by J.J. Abrams and directed by Matt Reeves, claims at the outset to be a video recovered from Central Park after an "incident" in New York City. The following patches of video introduce six characters -- Rob and his girlfriend Beth, Rob's brother Jason and his girlfriend Lily, along with two others, Hud and Marlena. Rob is going to Japan to take a business position, and the video takes snippets from Rob's surprise going-away party.
The party is interrupted after dark by what seems to be an earthquake, but then there's an explosion that lights up the dark and sends the head of the Statue of Liberty tumbling down the streets outside. Soon it becomes obvious a monster the size of the Brooklyn Bridge is on the loose in downtown Manhattan, with New Yorkers crowding the streets to get out of the city.
Beth, however, had left the party early, and calls Rob from her apartment to tell him she's injured and can't move. Rob refuses to leave the city and is accompanied by the surviving members of the group as he tries to make his way to Beth through the dark, as the monster smashes through buildings, dropping swarms of dog-sized parasites that attack humans on sight. The military gets involved, adding storms of firepower to the hazards as the nightmare spirals out of control.
* I picked up CLOVERFIELD out of curiosity after seeing a trailer in a store. I had limited expectations -- after two seasons of J.J. Abrams' LOST TV series, I came to the conclusion that his style had a slick and superficial cleverness that was quickly exhausted, reducing the story into strung-together contrivances -- but I was hoping the camcorder narrative approach would prove interesting.
CLOVERFIELD gets off to a slow start, the scenes at the going-away party resembling the sort of self-conscious posturing of YouTube videos. Clearly these scenes were supposed to establish a connection between the six characters and the audience, but they were actually not much more than irritating. Once the assault of the monster begins, however, the movie picks up considerably, and is often effective in depicting the incoherent panic and terror of a city under assault, building the suspense necessary for a fright flic.
Unfortunately, although CLOVERFIELD is watchable once it gets up to speed, aside from the videocam narrative it is an entirely conventional by-the-numbers "giant monster running amok" movie, admittedly with a more convincing monster than Godzilla or Mothra. There's nothing particularly clever or imaginative about it, and at no time do the characters ever come particularly alive. CLOVERFIELD might worth watching for killing some time, but once it's over and done with -- it's forgotten.
