CLOVERFIELD: A REVIEW

CLOVERFIELD (2008_

This is a difficult film to watch. Much of it is related as cinema verite. The moviegoer “sees” much of this documentary-like film through the camera work of a novice digital video-maker. This allows the production team to execute a reasonably effective touch of irony. Unfortunately, there are few scenes that aren’t confusing, topsy-turvy video experiences. This does not mean that the camerawork annihilated the storyline, but it acted as a distraction. The accompanying audio lost much of its clarifying potential, due to the style of this film, whose amateurish videotaping wasn’t limited to visual deficiencies.

The production team and actors are not well-known in the U.S.A. The director is a Mr. Matt Reeves. The story was written by a Mr. ( or Ms.) Drew Goddard. J.J. Abrams was the primary name associated with the film production. This film effort has more than a little kinship to ’50s sci-fis, and seems to borrow a little from “The War Of The Worlds,” “Starship Troopers,” and “Alien,” as well as other films and documented events, such as the “dust tsunami” that flooded down the streets of Manhattan after September 11, 2001, destruction of the World Trade Center’s twin towers.

The film stars: Michael Stahl-Davis (“Robert Hawkins”), Odette Yustman (“Elizabeth ‘Beth’ McIntyre”), Mike Vogel (“Jason Hawkins”), Lizzy Caplan (“Marlena”), Jessica Lucas (“Lily”), and T.J. Miller  (“Hud”), and a cast of many. This crew could not be characterized as “stellar actors.”

The film begins curiously and perhaps this was inevitable. There are camera shots (reasonably photographed) of some events transpiring in space. There are shots of spaceships, space stations, and the like, while audio informs the moviegoer that “The Eagle has landed” or “That’s one small step for man, one giant step for humankind.” Then there are glimpses of a cartoonlike “pink robot” and “DOD” and “Department of Defense” indicators, which soon include the data that there is a  ”Cloverfield project” and a “Central Park site.”

This none-too-clear opening at least suggests that this film will involve space travel and the Pentagon planners. [In fact at one point in the film the Robert Hawkins character suggests that the Pentagon may have created the villainous things running amok.] However, the film promptly cuts to an amateurish videotaping session executed by the Robert Hawkins character and involves his new girlfriend, Beth. This serves to initiate the documentary in its amateurish cinema verite style.

The storyline:  a young man (“Robert Hawkins”), who is at the start of a romance with a girl (“Beth”) he likes, finds himself pulled in another direction, as he is promoted to vice president in his company and will be immediately transfered to Tokyo, Japan. This is something he had wanted, prior to his sleeping with Beth. Equivocal feelings strife within him. His brother (“Jason”) and friends have planned a “going away/congratulations” type party that evening. This very mundane situation takes a harrowing and horrifying turn, when the “party” is “busted” by unwanted invaders. Suddenly, issues of the first rank must be dealt with in a chaotic environment. Cool heads are needed. And maybe a fast plane.

Elaborating on this film, Robert Hawkins apparently takes his girl friend to Coney Island for a last “fun thing” together before he has to go, and this event is filmed. This would serve as a partial “fill in” of some elements of the story, later in the film. The moviegoer isn’t aware of the trip except by reference to its documentation on a videotape. This documentation is later at the party overwritten by a subsequent documentary under the camerawork of Robert’s pal, Hud. The viewer is aware of it by frames between stops and starts in the later videotaping. Further, Robert’s brother, Jason and his girlfriend, Lily, are introduced. The viewers see them playing a bit. Soon (that evening), they are all at the most boring party ever shown on the “big screen.” It is, itself, arguably a masterly put-down of such merry events. The film allocates quite a lot of time to this party, where everyone that had any import in the film was introduced, as well as a large number of “cocktail glass” holders. This whole tedious business was barely endurable. However, some of the actors find themselves on a balcony, or some such, when suddenly, “hellzapoppin.” Confused and anxious, they begin to make their way to “safety” in Brooklyn. Suddenly, there are explosions and the head of the Statue of Liberty comes hurling toward them and squashes some luckless BigAppleites. The military has arrived and there are firefights with–with–something big and ghastly-looking. The Brooklyn Bridge goes down in a neat special effect with much loss of life, including an important member of the cast. By chance Robert discovers a message on his phone from his girlfriend. She’s trapped in her highrise and bleeding badly from a wound. Robert and his remnant, including Hud the documentary-making pal, head to the girlfriend’s abode to save her. Meanwhile, the somewhat mysterious villain is “shedding” little monsters like dandruff. One military man confides that the “enemy is winning.” Manhattan may be “nuked” as a last resort. Robert will not forsake his true love and tells the military to shoot him in the back, if they want, but he was going to save his girl. Of his crew, only Hud, Lily, and Marlena are left to struggle on, the remainer being dead or having vacated via helicopters during an earlier rescue. Although it is often chaotic for the moviegoer to watch, the little group, nevertheless, are seen to arrive at the highrise where the trapped Beth resides. Marlena has been bitten by a baby-bug villain. Not good! Beth is found and rescued, after removing a rod that has impaled her.  The whole business ends with the remnant gang getting rather spiritual. It’s a case of “love in the ruins.” Well, bury my heart in mid-town Manhattan! The film concludes with a neat bit of irony.

There were some curious-looking villains in this flick. I’m at a loss to describe the “big Moma” (or Dad?) as other than a combination of preying mantis, reptile and bat, about the size of Godzilla. The “young’uns” looked somewhat like a cross between leggy crabs and toothy armadillos. Folks, don’t even try to reason with them.

This film had few intended points of humor that worked well. One that I liked involved the character Hud, responding to the advice of Robert Hawkins. He said, as if to capsule the options friend Robert was offering the remnant, “You’re saying that if we stay here, we die. If we go there, we die. And if we go outside, we die?”

One is reminded of the folk wisdom: Life’s a bitch–then you die.

All rights reserved. Gobigfoot, 2008.