Cloverfield

Clovefield has been out for about 1 week and since its release, I have heard a lot of good things about it.  I recall seeing previews for it in like November that got me pumped to see it and I have been anticipating it ever since.  J.J. Abrams was responsible  for the TV show Alias which my wife and I were huge fans of and most recently Lost has shown Abrams’ flare for the dramatic, so there is a lot look forward to.

Cloverfield takes a surprisingly long time to actually get to the meat of the movie as you are taken through the preparation of a surprise party for the main character.  Through this, you meet all the people you will be following (literally) through the movie and spend just long enough with these people to get to know them and their stories.

Just as I was getting bored with the movie, WHAM!, the action starts and doesn’t stop!  The whole movie is filmed from the perspective of one of the characters, Hud, holding a video camera and gives the feel of Blair Witch or even MTV.  The movement of the camera was sometimes a bit hard to handle but adds a touch of reality to the movie.  I have heard that Cloverfield is good but unrealistic because it is about aliens attacking the earth but, come on, it’s a movie that’s why we go, isn’t it?  In fact, they never actually confirm that it is an alien attack, in fact they never really claim anything.

Without giving anything away, I thought it was a great movie!  I thought the ending was perfect, and well timed,  If the movie had been any longer, it would have been too long.  I thought the movie was very good at showing how humans would react to something of that cray nature happening to them/us.  My favorite character was Hud.  He is this sometimes annoying, won’t shut up kind of guy, who provides a small bit of comedy relief in this otherwise non-stop crazy movie.  A question occurred to my wife, does the person who plays Hud in the movie truly carry the camera himself through the entire movie or does a true camera man do it and then they add Hud’s voice later?  I don’t know the answer, but it is a good question.

SPOILER INFO~~DO NOT READ IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SPOIL THE MOVIE!!

The absence of a true conclusion, is awesome.  Not many filmmakers have the guts to do that but I thought it was great!  I left the movie asking if the human race was doomed because of this “creature” or if we somehow survive.  The movie never clues into that answer except in that this movie is property of the US government and someone is viewing it.  That is all they give as to if there are survivors.  Is it an alien or perhaps a creature from the sea as Hud believes?  No clue, but it is a very cool “creature”.  Lastly, I know that Rob said that their friend, (can’t remember her name right now)-the girlfriend of his brother, was dead but did they actually show that?  I don’t think so.  I think that if they were to make a sequel, they would be able to use her story as the hook, although I don’t think they intend on making a sequel-and they shouldn’t.  The movie is perfect as it is!