Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Cloverfield

So, since I did say that I would talk about movies on this blog, I figured that I would start with the movie I was probably looking forward to the most in 2008 beside The Dark Knight. That movie would be Cloverfield.

My anticipation for this movie started when I saw the teaser trailer before a midnight screening of Transformers back in July. And while I didn't get into a lot of the pre-release viral websites, I still checked in on a couple of them before the release and liked what they were doing to hype the movie up. The problem with viral marketing like that, is that sometimes the movies don't live up to hype and end up being a big disappointment. It's one of the fears that I do have for The Dark Knight since I have been really involved with the virals for that film. But that's for July. Back to Cloverfield.

One of the things that I tried promising myself was that I wouldn't go into the movie with any expectations or any preconceived notions about the movie. I knew that it was a monster movie and I knew that the movie would be shot via a handycam as if the story had been told by real people. I did read one website that said the dialogue was cheesy.

I have to say that I really, really liked the movie. Granted, I'm a huge movie fan, so most of the times, I end up enjoying the movie, which is I guess my way of justifying the money spent. But this one is definitely one I like. But only on one viewing. I don't think this movie will hold up for a
second time through, but that doesn't make it bad. Memento is a movie that loses its allure the second time through, but that doesn't make it a bad movie. Granted, I don't think this movie is as good as Memento, but I do think its worth watching.

Sure the dialogue is a bit bad in some points, but I just look at it as what they tried to do. The movie was meant to show what happens when people try to survive a monster attack on their city and tried to make the people feel real. Sure, sometimes what they say is a bit on the lame side, but most of it comes from Hud, who is basically the comic relief of the movie. And I think what he ends up saying is him just trying to bring laughter to lighten up the situation they are in.

I guess another complaint about the movie was that the monster is barely in it. And that's true. But I think it goes back to the whole premise of the movie. I understand that Monsters like that are not real and that situation would never ever happen. But let's pretend it does. Wouldn't you be trying as hard as you possibly could to be avoiding the monster? Wouldn't you not want to be getting anywhere near the dang thing? So, I really don't think that complaint really makes much sense. I mean, if that's something wants to complain about for the movie, it's their right. Just don't do it to me.

Now, be warned that the movie is shot with a handycam, so the camera is shaky a lot during the movies, but I don't think that it's nearly as bad as Bourne Ultimatum or United 93. Those movies were very, very shaky. This one wasn't as bad to me.

The only thing that I could say brought the movie down for me was the length. It was 87 minutes credits to credits. Now, normally, movies that don't drag on too long are a good thing. I've sat through some long movies that I felt would never end this past summer, but this one felt a bit short. I mean, I didn't feel that there was anything missing from the plot, just maybe a bit too condensed. But I guess if that's my only complaint, then I guess it's a success for the filmmakers, huh?

Anyway, I would give the movie a 7.7 out of 10 and so far my favorite movie of 2008 so far, but that's a short list.

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