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Cloverfield
Directed by: Matt Reeves Starring: Michael Stahl-David, J T Miller, Jessica Lucas, Lizzy Caplan Synopsis A group of friends, gathered for a leaving party, record the events of a black day in New York as a creature strides through Manhattan causing death and very expensive property damage. Review As soon as the viral marketing strategy kicked in, I switched off. I hate movie hype and I especially hate movies being over-hyped. It sometimes detracts from a decent movie. Due to time constraints I was unable to see Cloverfield at the cinema; Thank God! So, when I came to watch the movie on DVD, I had very little idea what the movie would be about. Ok, I’d seen the trailer; cars being flung around, the Statue of Liberty being defaced. But, I didn’t know much more than that. I’m glad I was ignorant, it helped my enjoyment of the movie. Seeing the film on the small screen worked well, I believe. I suffered only a little motion sickness and the format was at home on the device I normally watch documentaries; my TV. The film has a very effective documentary feel to it.
It begins with a fairly mundane opening. Rob Hawkins is going to work in Japan and a surprise party has been thrown. The camera duties have been delegated by Rob’s brother Jason, to a useless Jock in the form of “Hud”. Hud proceeds to get side tracked by the pretty, troubled, Marlena whilst tasked with obtaining testimonials from Rob’s friends. Rob, meanwhile is besotted with Beth, who turns up with Travis. All in all, it’s a fairly typical party. Once the first tremor reverberates through the Manhattan loft, chaos ensues. Rightly so, this is where the fun begins and does not let up until the enigmatic end credits. People panic, the camera goes wild thanks to Hud running along with it, and a chilling post 9-11 scene unfolds. Any New Yorkers watching this must have had a chill running though their souls. Early on, as the monster begins to trash the city off camera, a huge billowing dust cloud surges down a street, coming right at us. The effect is quite close to reality. In fact this is the film’s strength; the technical side of things. The images of destruction, the creature’s movements and the ensuing attack on the creature are represented faultlessly by special effects. Despite the criticisms, I had no problem with the creature’s look. The parasites that fall from the creature and attack the Manhattan citizens were a surprise to me and added some superb tension at key moments.
A journey through a dark subway tunnel is always good for ramping up the tension and it works well in this film. I particularly liked the journey through the apartments to rescue a key character and the punch line towards the end. Although the characters aren’t particularly memorable, like in Diary of the Dead they serve mainly to drive forward the movie. There’s not much plot; monster stomps Manhattan, and survivors fight to get out of the city whilst first rescuing their mates. There’s not a great sense of loss when characters die but then the movie speeds along. The momentum and sense of real-time peril in the movie means there’s no time for the characters in the story to grieve. The immediacy of the situation and the fact that the movie is being filmed from Hud's p.o.v means the audience is caught up along with the characters and have to focus on those still alive. 
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