Cloverfield: take a deep breath and hold on your seat, the end is near…
The first statement let you know that everything is not fine. The images you are about to see were recovered from a camera which was found in an area formerly known as Central Park.
It starts with scenes without great interest, young peoples having fun, organizing a party. Everything is there to put you at ease and in trust. Several characters are presented: Rob, Beth, Jason, Lily, Hudson ‘Hud’ and Marlena. Then you are the actual party, it is at its apex with the good mood and the little drama, but all this only last for 15 minutes. Suddenly there’s a rumble, a loud vibration, the ground is shaking, everybody is starting to panic. Just like everyone at the party you don’t know what’s going so you just take a guess, an earthquake maybe, a plane crashed down, or a meteorite…
The speculations are cut short within the next three minutes, the rumble starts again and out of nowhere the head of the Statue of Liberty comes crashing down in the street, and the ephemeral vision of ‘something’ giant and moving.
And it goes downhill from here…
One thing is sure, the party’s over. It could have been one of those oh so many catastrophe movies, the kind where the ‘world’ – i.e. New York, is completely destroyed, but the gang of ‘heroes’ will find out what’s going on and will save the ‘planet’. It could have been one of those pop corn movies where you can predict everything with a five minute head start and predict what will happen, when and how. One of those movies you watch for entertainment with a smirk on your lips and the thought ‘Yeah, right,” running in your head.
Matt Reeves and J.J. Abrahams – well known for the show ‘Lost’, upgrade the action/catastrophe movie gender to a whole new level. There are so many things that make the movie realistic and keep the viewers tight screwed on their seat with awe.
First, the images. A camera is handed to Hudson ‘Hud’ to film the party and as the events goes we’ll see everything through the images he manages to get, Hud is our ‘eyes’ so to speak.
This is the first of many good choices. There are no good angles with the camera, the image is shaky and dynamic, it’s constantly moving with the character and more than once you’ll be begging and pursing your lips not to scream ‘put the camera up dude, I need to see what’s going on!’.
This choice for filming adds to the realism – some may experience vertigo watching the movie. Suddenly we are not viewers anymore, we are put at the same level than the characters, we are one of the gang, we are running with them, we know as much as they do – which means not much, and like them we don’t know what to expect, except maybe to get out of here in one piece.
The camera isn’t running non stop so we don’t have the action in continue, just like a homemade movie. Even more sometimes the camera switches to what was on the tape before, images of Rob and Beth talking, smiling, having a normal day. An ironic way to remind us that everything was fine before and that the happy hours are long gone and far behind.
Then there’s the action. Like the characters, you don’t know what it is but you know that whatever it is, it’s bad new. The action is pretty simple, run for your life, however Abrahams and Reeves bring the viewer to question themselves. Everything is made in such a way that we can believe that what we see could actually happened, and more it leads us to ask ourselves what would we do if it was the case.
One of the great qualities of the movie is the ever so present rush of adrenaline. We don’t have any breaks, the tension, the stress, the fear, are always there so we are on the edge until the end. ‘Cloverfield’ is made of unexpected, surprises and twists, you never know what’s coming next, you just sit here and hope for the best.
The greatest idea in this movie is – in my opinion – the fact that we never get the identity of the threat. No one comes out of nowhere to talk to you about a scientific experiment which turned wrong or a murderous plan made by crazy scientists. No one comes to tell you ‘I know what we have to do’. All we know is that it’s big and hideous, a monster for short.
Many people will find it frustrating, but when you think about it if your town was under attacked you wouldn’t take time to find out what the monster is or where it comes from and so on. That being said it doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t ask yourself those questions, but the answers aren’t as important as getting out of the fire alive and in one piece if that’s possible.
The whole point of ‘Cloverfield’ is not to center the plot around the monster but rather around the character and what they go through, so in the end the viewers can completely relate to what they see. Even more, we can feel the emotions. We definitely feel the adrenaline rush, but we also feel the pain at the loss – it is no fairy tell where everyone gets to live happily ever after, people die and get hurt, sorry kids…
Abrahams and Reeves could have stopped there but they didn’t. They touch the sensitive chord of fear. How? They didn’t use any music. Go on a make a test, watch a movie that scares you and listen to the Spice Girls album at the same time, you won’t be scared, you might not even get into the action. Music has a really subtle yet really important part in movies, it will be used to make you laugh, cry, or be afraid. Music is the key – no pun intended – to exacerbate your feelings while you’re watching a movie.
Here, there’s no such thing, so you’re left to deal with your fear and your erratic heartbeat. The stress is bigger and paranoia isn’t far behind.
We’ll be grateful for the choice of the cast, young, good but unknown actors – or almost unknown. One more point in the ‘realism’ department. For some reason when you see Bruce Willis on screen everything goes straight to the ‘that will never happen’ category, because we all know that Bruce will save the world. This time you feel like you were at the same level as the characters. At least now we think that they are just regular people on an especially bad day, and we think ‘yeah, it could have been me.’
To make it short I’d say that Abrahams and Reeves created a real jewel, a pure moment of entertainment. I can’t remember the last time a movie pinned me on my seat and left me with the expression of complete and utter awe.
A ‘must’ to see.
The first statement let you know that everything is not fine. The images you are about to see were recovered from a camera which was found in an area formerly known as Central Park.
It starts with scenes without great interest, young peoples having fun, organizing a party. Everything is there to put you at ease and in trust. Several characters are presented: Rob, Beth, Jason, Lily, Hudson ‘Hud’ and Marlena. Then you are the actual party, it is at its apex with the good mood and the little drama, but all this only last for 15 minutes. Suddenly there’s a rumble, a loud vibration, the ground is shaking, everybody is starting to panic. Just like everyone at the party you don’t know what’s going so you just take a guess, an earthquake maybe, a plane crashed down, or a meteorite…
The speculations are cut short within the next three minutes, the rumble starts again and out of nowhere the head of the Statue of Liberty comes crashing down in the street, and the ephemeral vision of ‘something’ giant and moving.
And it goes downhill from here…
One thing is sure, the party’s over. It could have been one of those oh so many catastrophe movies, the kind where the ‘world’ – i.e. New York, is completely destroyed, but the gang of ‘heroes’ will find out what’s going on and will save the ‘planet’. It could have been one of those pop corn movies where you can predict everything with a five minute head start and predict what will happen, when and how. One of those movies you watch for entertainment with a smirk on your lips and the thought ‘Yeah, right,” running in your head.
Matt Reeves and J.J. Abrahams – well known for the show ‘Lost’, upgrade the action/catastrophe movie gender to a whole new level. There are so many things that make the movie realistic and keep the viewers tight screwed on their seat with awe.
First, the images. A camera is handed to Hudson ‘Hud’ to film the party and as the events goes we’ll see everything through the images he manages to get, Hud is our ‘eyes’ so to speak.
This is the first of many good choices. There are no good angles with the camera, the image is shaky and dynamic, it’s constantly moving with the character and more than once you’ll be begging and pursing your lips not to scream ‘put the camera up dude, I need to see what’s going on!’.
This choice for filming adds to the realism – some may experience vertigo watching the movie. Suddenly we are not viewers anymore, we are put at the same level than the characters, we are one of the gang, we are running with them, we know as much as they do – which means not much, and like them we don’t know what to expect, except maybe to get out of here in one piece.
The camera isn’t running non stop so we don’t have the action in continue, just like a homemade movie. Even more sometimes the camera switches to what was on the tape before, images of Rob and Beth talking, smiling, having a normal day. An ironic way to remind us that everything was fine before and that the happy hours are long gone and far behind.
Then there’s the action. Like the characters, you don’t know what it is but you know that whatever it is, it’s bad new. The action is pretty simple, run for your life, however Abrahams and Reeves bring the viewer to question themselves. Everything is made in such a way that we can believe that what we see could actually happened, and more it leads us to ask ourselves what would we do if it was the case.
One of the great qualities of the movie is the ever so present rush of adrenaline. We don’t have any breaks, the tension, the stress, the fear, are always there so we are on the edge until the end. ‘Cloverfield’ is made of unexpected, surprises and twists, you never know what’s coming next, you just sit here and hope for the best.
The greatest idea in this movie is – in my opinion – the fact that we never get the identity of the threat. No one comes out of nowhere to talk to you about a scientific experiment which turned wrong or a murderous plan made by crazy scientists. No one comes to tell you ‘I know what we have to do’. All we know is that it’s big and hideous, a monster for short.
Many people will find it frustrating, but when you think about it if your town was under attacked you wouldn’t take time to find out what the monster is or where it comes from and so on. That being said it doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t ask yourself those questions, but the answers aren’t as important as getting out of the fire alive and in one piece if that’s possible.
The whole point of ‘Cloverfield’ is not to center the plot around the monster but rather around the character and what they go through, so in the end the viewers can completely relate to what they see. Even more, we can feel the emotions. We definitely feel the adrenaline rush, but we also feel the pain at the loss – it is no fairy tell where everyone gets to live happily ever after, people die and get hurt, sorry kids…
Abrahams and Reeves could have stopped there but they didn’t. They touch the sensitive chord of fear. How? They didn’t use any music. Go on a make a test, watch a movie that scares you and listen to the Spice Girls album at the same time, you won’t be scared, you might not even get into the action. Music has a really subtle yet really important part in movies, it will be used to make you laugh, cry, or be afraid. Music is the key – no pun intended – to exacerbate your feelings while you’re watching a movie.
Here, there’s no such thing, so you’re left to deal with your fear and your erratic heartbeat. The stress is bigger and paranoia isn’t far behind.
We’ll be grateful for the choice of the cast, young, good but unknown actors – or almost unknown. One more point in the ‘realism’ department. For some reason when you see Bruce Willis on screen everything goes straight to the ‘that will never happen’ category, because we all know that Bruce will save the world. This time you feel like you were at the same level as the characters. At least now we think that they are just regular people on an especially bad day, and we think ‘yeah, it could have been me.’
To make it short I’d say that Abrahams and Reeves created a real jewel, a pure moment of entertainment. I can’t remember the last time a movie pinned me on my seat and left me with the expression of complete and utter awe.
A ‘must’ to see.
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