Cloverfield
Often, films with great trailers never live up to them. Cloverfield had a genius trailer, full of mystery, which sparked a viral avalanche of interest. So that doesn't bode well, right?
Never fear. Because Cloverfield is highly entertaining.
It's not original, by any stretch of the word original, but it takes old tropes and uses them in a fresh way, like a lot of good Science Fiction.
A monster attacking a city, is as old as erm.. Godzilla (well, probably older), but Cloverfield handles the idea in a fresh modern way. It's like Godzilla (the recent Hollywood version) done right, crossed with Blair-Witch. The shaky camera work really adds to the atmosphere, the whole film is "shot" on camcorder, that apocalyptic kind of terror, and it didn't give me a headache.
Surprisingly there are also interesting characters, and good acting. The story follows a group who seem real, make decisions, try and survive. And there's a love story flickering in and out, ultimately making the whole film mean more.
I do have to point out some of the crazy decisions the characters made:
- When in New York and you hear a huge explosion, do you (a) Run up to the roof to see what's happening? (b) Run downstairs very quickly and run away!
- When escaping New York from an attacking monster do you (a) Run across a suspension bridge (b) Try and get of the island via some other method?
Although, to be honest, the decisions made seemed justified to the characters, but they need to watch more SF!
All in all I found Cloverfield brilliant fun, there's wit and action and scares and love and emotion, and a big monster attacking New York. What else do you need? Great stuff.
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