I enjoyed Cloverfield and am considering going to see it again. (If you knew how rarely I pay to see movies at the theater, you'd realize that this statement in itself is a high form of praise. I saw 6 films at the theater in 2007, not counting the ones I had free passes for and the ones I saw months after release at the $1 theater.)
The content and execution were excellent, IMO, and it's brilliant in the fact that it offers a fresh new take on the monster movie genre.
I've often watched Godzilla movies and wondered to myself, "That little guy down there who is running away from Godzilla, whose buddy just got stomped on, what's his story? And that guy who is gawking while the military is trying to bring the monster down? Why doesn't he run away like any sane person should be doing?"
That's what Cloverfield gives me. I've got plenty of films to choose from about a monster destroying the city. But now I've got a film that shows me what is happening to the average people on the street -- from their perspective -- while the monster attack is going on.
I remember thinking while watching the Transformers movie that there were a whole ton of people on the street while Optimus Prime and Megatron were crashing onto cars and through office buildings. I was thinking, "What is going through that guy's mind when they crash through his board meeting? Why are all those idiots standing around on the street while these two huge robots smash up everything in sight?"
To be fair to those idiots on the street in the movie, if I was in the same situation I'd be torn between the urge to run away and the urge to get closer to see exactly what's going on. I'd probably be rooted to the spot in fear and indecision, and my hesitation would most likely get me killed really quickly.
I found the characters in Cloverfield to be very believable, given the context that they're supposed to be regular people, not adventure movie heroes. For those of you who think they acted unrealistically, I guess you have higher expectations than me for ability of the average person to think rationally and keep it together when unbelievably bad things are happening all around them. Would I be friends with these people if I met them at a party or worked in the same office? Maybe, maybe not. It's hard to tell based on such a small snippet of their lives. But by the middle of the film I certainly cared what happened to them. And I definitely didn't think they deserved some disastrous fate.
To me, the actions of the characters make perfect sense. After losing his brother, the main character is on a mission to save his would-be girlfriend -- he's had a crush on her for years, they finally hooked up a month ago, now their relationship is strained because he's leaving the country, they had a bad fight earlier at the party, the last thing he said to her was intended to hurt her feelings, and now he knows she's hurt in her apartment and needs help. OK, that's believable to me.
Why did the others go along with him? The way I see it, they went along for a number of reasons: 1) they knew they couldn't talk Rob out of going, 2) they didn't want him going off alone, 3) they figured it was better to be with people they knew than by themselves. Facing the fear of the unknown looked better when surrounded by friends. And look what happened to them when they split up the group earlier on the bridge.
Plus, the monster didn't seem to be after them specifically, so it's reasonable to assume they figured if they could steer clear of it they'd be okay.
My wife couldn't get past the fact that the two women in the movie didn't take the time to get more comfortable shoes when they left the tunnels and emerged in the department store. I don't think they were thinking about things like footwear at the moment.
What was the creature? Where did it come from? Why was it attacking the city? The movie offers no explanations, but to me it's the not knowing what is going on that makes the events of the film more horrific.
I've never been so deeply affected by watching a movie. Sure, watching Alien as a kid gave me nightmares, but I had vivid dreams for two nights that the events of the movie were happening to me. I guess it's partly because everything in the film is seen through the first-person perspective.
Anyway, I'd not want to see another film like this for some time, but I'm glad I saw Cloverfield.
