Cloverfiled is definitely a movie that will require patience from anyone that decides to watch it. I call it a cross between
The Blair Witch Project and
Godzilla. The entire movie is made up entirely of "found footage" as seen through the eyes of
Hud (T. J. Miller), who originally was tasked to document his best friend
Rob's (Michael Stahl-David) 'Going-away' party when s h i t hit's the fan. I have somehow managed to avoid spoilers for this one since it came out 4 years ago. In all this time, I had every intention of seeing this so I always made it a point to turn away as soon as I came across talk of the movie.
And as soon as I put the DVD in the player and the film began, my immediate reaction was "Oh f u c k me"!!!! When I saw that the movie was basically going to be one giant reel of "found footage" I had pretty much come to the realization I was done with it. Why? Because I hated
The Blair Witch Project. I can't even begin to describe how much I detest that movie. But
Cloverfield is a
J.J. Abrams production, so I decided to give it a shot and a funny thing happened. I would say half way between the start of the movie and the first sign of trouble in Manhattan, I got it and I was totally engaged with what was unfolding. Maybe around the 15 minute mark I would say is when I let go of the "shaky camera" FX that plagues a lot of these types of sub-genre films.
That's not to say that there isn't any shaky footage here. There's plenty. But they were able to at least pick key moments to have stationary / static shots to give not only the characters some breathing room, but the viewer some downtime to rest the eyes....and brain. Watching the movie, especially during the party sequence, I recognized a lot of actors that I've been watching lately on TV shows. Because I have been spoiler free about this movie for so long, I had no idea they were even in this one.
Mike Vogel (Jason) can be found in
Pan Am.
Odette Yustman (Beth) can be found in
Breaking In. Lizzy Caplan (Marlena) was most recently in
New Girl and
Jessica Lucas (Lily) was in
Melrose Place 2.0.
There are some pretty cool and unexpected "scare" moments that I couldn't predict in this one, the best being at the end with the sudden appearance of the Monster. I kinda knew the fate of the one behind the camera was doomed from the beginning. The opening title card kind of tips it off if your aware of the usual types of ending with this genre.
I definitely can give this a recommendation as a
Rent. My only problem with the movie is that it just....ends. No explanation or resolution of what happens after the fact or what and where the Monster came from is ever addressed. Sigh.