Cloverfield: Fly On The Wall

“The world's been here for millions of years. Man's been walking upright for a comparatively short time. Mentally we're still crawling.”
-- Professor Tom Nesbitt from The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms

“When Man entered the atomic age, he opened a door into a new world. What he eventually finds in that new world, nobody can predict.”
-- Dr. Harold Medford from Them!

“Yeah, people are gonna want to know... how it all went down.”
-- Hud Platt from Cloverfield

Cloverfield is very effective for what it is. The true pleasure of watching Cloverfield is akin to finding a message in a bottle. In this the case, the bottle is a video camcorder and the message is the content on the videotape. The film is the epitome of the YouTube Generation. The movie’s greatest irony is that watching a videotape on the big screen returns us to the pleasures of a shared communal experience. This is a movie that has to be seen in a crowded theater in order for it to be effective. I truly believe this movie will lose a lot on a small screen and especially watching it on a computer. I am not even sure if it will hold up on repeated viewings. Cloverfield is more an experience than an actual film. This is not a bad thing given the nature of the storytelling devices that director, Matt Reeves, and screenwriter, Drew Goddard, employ. By focusing on the human element aspect of the genre, we are thrown into the action when everything goes down. You want to know what it feels like to be that woman cradling her young children in the original Gojira or dazed and scared as the running crowds like in either version of War Of The Worlds; this movie puts you in the middle of that experience. Reeves accomplishes what John McTiernan claimed he wanted to do in Predator-- put you in the middle of action. Reeves does this with incredible ease. Speaking of War Of The Worlds, this movie does an excellent job of creating a level of panic just as Steven Spielberg did with his remake in 2005. I find the first half of that film to be as scary as they come. Spielberg’s version captured the fear very well, just as Frank Darabont did in The Mist last year.

What is Cloverfield? It is a monster movie for the post- 9/11 era. Cloverfield would not be as eerie or as effective without that context. The horrific day haunts the whole film. If I lived in New York City, I am not sure I could watch this film all the way. The movie has a couple of sequences that work all too well-- there are several money shots that work very well. The story is told from the point of view of a small group of friends.
As the movie opens, the display on the video screen tells us that this evidence was retrieved from the formation formally known as Central Park. I believe that statement itself is pretty chilling. Something awful must have happened in one of the most beautiful parts of New York City.

The beginning of the tape is background for the main characters in the movie. The tape goes back and forth between the present and recent past of the characters’ lives. This is important, so pay attention. The action really starts at a going away party for Rob Hawkins (Michael David-Stahl). He has gotten a job in Japan. His brother, Jason (Mike Vogel) and their friends are throwing him a surprise going away party. Their friend and constant talker, Hud Platt (T.J. Miller), has been given the task of videotaping everyone and everything at the party. This part of the movie is like an ADD version of Dawson’s Creek. I do not recognize most of the young actors in the movie and this works to the movie’s advantage. The movie puts us in the center of the party; this is the part where being a fly on the wall has very little in the way of perks. Rob has a fight with his girlfriend. She leaves the party with someone else. But just when you think the movie is drowning in a sea of its retarded narcissism, life as these partygoers knows it comes to a thunderous end. The monster could not have gotten here soon enough. The power goes out after a huge blasting shockwave of sound. The power comes back on and the television news comes back on. It seems that an oil tanker as capsized in the harbor near the Statue of Liberty. The partygoers rush up to the rooftop. We see a huge fireball explosion in the center of Manhattan. All bets are off!

At this point of the film, the chaos and confusion of 9/11 comes into full play. This movie plays on the fear of that day and does it quite well. As our band of partygoers exits onto the streets-- all hell has broken loose. People are running, buildings are collapsing, dust and debris are everywhere and yes, we see something big and monstrous making its way from though the city. We see everything from Hud’s point of view. Hud has a frat boy mentality and he has knack for saying some pretty stupid things, but he is the viewfinder. We are seeing everything through his eyes. People have no idea what they have seen. One of the pieces of debris is the Statue of Liberty’s head as it comes crashing down on the street. It is a true holy shit moment-- a nice wink to Planet of The Apes and Escape From New York. The goal should be to get out of the city, but Rob cannot do this. He has to go back into the city to save his girlfriend who is still in the heart of all this insanity. He wants to make things right. You would have to be insane to go back in that direction. The scene of the evacuations out of the city is intense. The scene of the crowds crossing the Brooklyn Bridge is one of the most chilling in the film. It plays on our fears very well.

The monster… no I am not going to even attempt to describe him. Maybe he is Lucifer at his worst. We have seen variations of him in many films. Let me put it this way, Ray Harryhausen will be very proud of what is wreaking havoc in New York City. The monster and his parasites work very well for several reasons. Sound is the most important aspect of the movie. The sound of things being destroyed, screams, noises in the dark, the monster’s roar and just about every noise create a successful thrill ride. Sound is key to this film and also the lack of any music score. There is no soundtrack to the film. I thought at first I would not like this, but it works to the film’s overall success. I am so used to Max Steiner or Akira Ifukube pulsating in the background-- I take it for granted. Cloverfield does not need any background music. It would have helped for the American remake of Godzilla directed by Roland Emmerich back in 1998. Cloverfield is a far superior experience to that heinous remake. The absence of music gives the movie the terror factor it is looking to achieve. The technique does owe a lot to 1999’s The Blair Witch Project with the hand held and shaky cam technique. If you get motion sickness, this may not be the movie for you. I like The Blair Witch Project and it was effective for its time. It is hard not to see the influence of the older film on this film. It is there in several scenes.

The last year has been a good year for the revival of the monster movie genre. The Mist and The Host are damn near classics in my book of this genre going back to its roots-- using the films as metaphors for fear and environmental concerns. Cloverfield is effective because of its geography. New York City gets a raw deal in this film, I Am Legend and The Day After Tomorrow. In each version of King Kong, Escape From New York, the first two Planet Of the Apes, Independence Day, Deep Impact, Meteor and countless others, New York City is ravaged and beaten. In the latter films, we were awed by what was happening. Whether it was James Franciscus and Linda Harrison wondering through the subway tunnels of post-apocalyptic New York in Beneath The Planet of The Apes or Bruce Cabot going after Fay Wray in the original King Kong, we were in awe of what was going on before us. After 9/11, it is no longer awe, but a new level of fear that unites us in the darkness. We are along for a very chilling ride in Cloverfield. It does remind us of that horrible day when we were all united in front of television screens. Cloverfield would not work as well without that context.

While I think Cloverfield is a great movie going experience, I am not sure how it will hold up on repeated viewings. I doubt the effect will work twice. The film is by no means perfect, but I think J.J. Abrams just wanted to scare the pants off us and get the internet kids back in the movie theaters. It is more of an experience than a film. I hope this not the future of filmmaking. There are no answers in the film as to why this is happening. We never find out where the monster came from or any of the who, what, where or why for that matter. I like the unknown aspects of the film-- the unanswered questions leave an interesting legacy. Logic does not enter the picture. How is anyone getting cell phone reception during all of this? How is Hud able to keep filming all of this? That camcorder must have one incredible battery in it. Hud does offer some of his theories for comic relief. There is one thing I do wish J.J. Abrams had not done. While the viral marketing of this film was very effective and went into overload, there was no need for it. All you needed was the trailer in front of Transformers. The film sold itself right then and there. It managed to take some of the thunder from that big summer blockbuster. He did not need to overhype this one. It is a shame because I would have loved to have walked into this film cold. The hype for this movie has been insane, but I do not think you needed it. Although having said that, Cloverfield does its job and does it very well-- it is quite the adrenaline rush.