Cloverfield

Cloverfield

9 out of 10

Running time: 1:18

MPAA rating: PG-13 (Violence, terror and disturbing images.)

Peruvian rating: Mayores de 14

Cast: Michael Stahl-David, Jessica Lucas, Lizzy Caplan, T.J. Miller, Mike Vogel, Odette Yustman.
Director: Matt Reeves
Script: Drew Goddard
Photography: Michael Bonvillain
Score: Michael Giacchino (End credits.)
Distributor: Paramount Pictures

I LOVED Cloverfield. Even more than I Am Legend. No matter how many times I think about the movie, I just can't find any major flaws by myself. I went to see it with some friends, and only like three of them liked the movie. The rest of them thought it was a waste of time. Well, it's a pity, for I think Cloverfield is a really engaging, tense, exciting, entertaining and almost-flawless motion picture. There, I said it. I was at the edge of my seat during the whole running time, and the movie kept surprising me in ways no other motion picture has in some years. The only thing I don't understand is why Paramount decided to release the movie in January. Given the quality of the flick, it could have very well been released during the U.S. summer. I guess they know, much like I do, that Cloverfield is not the typical pop-corn flick. It's more than that.

The film is basically the content of one video tape, and begins in April of 2009 with a cute little scene between lovers Rob (Michael Stahl-David) and Beth (Odette Yustman), who have just spent their first night together and are filming each other in the morning. Then events jump ahead to May. Rob is leaving for Japan the next day and this is his going-away party. In attendance are his brother, Jason (Mike Vogel); Jason's girlfriend, Lily (Jessica Lucas); Rob's best friend (and the cameraman), Hud (T.J. Miller); and Hud's potential love interest, Marlena (Lizzy Caplan). Things are going well at the party until all hell breaks loose outside. There are explosions. Buildings are being destroyed. Projectiles hurtle through the air. In a matter of minutes, New York is in chaos. This time, however, the attacker isn't a terrorist; it's a giant monster.

So why is the film so amazing (for me)? More than anything else, the way the movie is shot is the reason why I find it so effective. The entire event is shown through the lens of a home videocamera, meaning that one of the characters (Hud) is actually recording what the audience is watching. This also means that we only watch what the characters watch, and nothing more. We know as much about the monster as they do, and we see events from their point of view. To me, this is genius. Some will recall The Blair Witch Project as the last time this filming technique was used and, since I haven't seen that movie - all right, kill me - I can't compare them, so I watched Cloverfield as if it were the first time this kind of movie was being shown.

So what is the best thing this technique does for the film? It makes it tense, exciting, mysterious, scary... we never get a clear shot of the freakin' monster, and things just come out of nowhere. Since we never get to see things in a larger scale, the audience never knows what is about to happen. For example, we suddenly arrive, along with the characters, to a street full of soldiers trying to kill the monster with tanks and rocket launchers. Had it been a conventional movie, we would have been presented with the situation and the soldiers and the fact that they were going to shoot at him. But no, in Cloverfield one lives the intense situations along with the characters, and pretty much everything remains shrouded in mystery. Where did the monster come from? How does it look like? How the hell are they going to kill it? (That last question is answered later in the proceedings, though.)

Additionally, this handheld camera technique allows the movie to take more risks and use techniques that can't be used in conventional films, and that produce some of the biggest scares. For example, there's the subway scene in which the surviving characters are walking through tunnels. Lights turn out, everything gets dark, so Hud turns on the night vision. And he sees something on the roof... it's one of the most intense sequences in the film - along with the first attack and many other scenes involving the monsters and some other little critters - and it's executed in a way that scares the audience and makes them worry about the characters. I'm not exaggerating, really; I was literally at the edge of my seat during the attack scenes, holding my girlfriend's hand to the point it started to hurt.

Okay, so there's lot of tension during the attack sequences and mystery surrounding the monster, but, what about the human characters? After all, these guys are the ones we follow during the whole movie. Fortunately, director Matt Reeves and screenwriter Drew Goddard have managed to develop the characters in a way we can relate to them in the most dangerous scenes. They're not exactly three-dimensional; instead, the filmmakers use archetypes, a way of making them sympathetic without "wasting" too many scenes. We have the valiant hero (Rob), her girlfriend, the "damsel in distress", (Beth), the tough girl (Lily), the victim (Marlena), the clown or comic-relief (Hud), and so on. This makes it easier for the audience to identify with the characters, especially with Hud, who is likable enough and provides with some of the film's funniest lines.

Ultimately, Cloverfield ended up being exactly the type of movie I was expecting, and I guess that's why I liked it so much. The handheld camera style of filmmaking is excellent, providing with a lot of tension and excitement, and a sense of immediacy a "normal" monster movie (such as the crappy American version of Godzilla) would never be able of achieving. Why is the movie so effective? Because it's different, because it's tense, and becomes it actually manages to make the audience believe in what's happening on screen. It's shot in such a realistic and believable way that it's pretty hard not to get involved in the situation. The film feels dangerous, and it even caused my girlfriend to feel a little scared for a while even after the movie had ended. Did it cause me motion sickness? Not really, and I didn't find it as shaky as some people claim it is. All in all, Cloverfield is a really great motion picture - I would never call it a masterpiece, though - and one of the most original monster movies I've seen in years.