Cloverfield

PASSING THOUGHTS
My first impression after watching this film was that it was a waste of time. The acting was great, the effects were amazing, but the camera work was annoying, and the whole story lacked a feeling of completion. It honestly wasn’t until after I watched the bonus features and mulled it over for several hours that I came to appreciate the filmmaker’s choices.

First of all, the story was not meant to feel complete—mostly because it wasn’t really a story. It was a recording of events that were punctuated by moments of fear, confusion, and shocking visuals. In essence, the movie had the same plot that a filmed wedding would have. There was a distinct progression of events, but instead of that progression supplementing the narrative, it became the narrative. The attempt was to make the whole experience seem as real as possible, and the reality of disaster is that it has no inherent narrative; one must be added.

The sinking of the Titanic itself was merely an event; turning it into an engaging movie required the disaster to become the backdrop, not the focus. With “Cloverfield”, the disaster remained in focus because it had to, and as a result, there was no room for much of a story. While it could be argued that this was not a good decision, it was nevertheless a successful execution of the director’s vision.

The filmmaker’s second admirable decision was to put the story on the shoulders of characters that typically would have been nobodies in a film like this. Usually if aliens invade or monsters arise or anything of dire significance occurs, the movie shifts its focus to characters that can make a difference. All-too-often this means the military guru who says things like, “I want to know how the @#$# this could happen! I want a full report! I want to know where it sleeps, how it breathes, what it dreams about…and I want it four hours ago!” And then there’s the unlikely hero who either has a latent power, an uncommon insight, or some stellar combat training that enables him to successfully fight and defeat the menace.

Much like Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds”, this film focuses on people who aren’t heroes; they are merely trying to survive. As an average Joe myself, I can appreciate a perspective that mimics what mine might be in a situation like that.

BASICS

Your Cup O’ Tea:
If you like the oversized-monster genre, you are enamored of seamless CGI effects, or you enjoy the perspective of being in the movie as opposed to watching it.

Steer Clear:
If you are distracted or disoriented by hand-held camera (camcorder) work, you are looking for a traditionally completed story, you want polished dialogue, or if you don’t find big monsters to be the best antagonists.

Nothing New Under the Sun:
This is an urban version of “The Blair Witch Project”, albeit with some dazzling special effects and a visible threat. The camera work, panicked dialogue, premise and ending are all the same. The footage is a recovered tape being watched after the events have taken place, and the last people alive give the teary-eyed monologue into the camera. The monster looks like a deformed version of the Rancor from “Return of the Jedi”, and the overall feel is of course reminiscent of a “Godzilla” flick.

Buy or Rent:
RENT. Definitely worth renting. If you can just watch a movie for the special effects, you’ll probably end up purchasing this, as it is a masterpiece of CGI work. If you saw this in theaters, you may still want to rent it just to see the 55 minutes of bonus features that talk about how the effects were done. That and you can fast-forward through the more tedious moments of the film and get to the visual effects.

FEATURES

-Scene Selection

-Set Up (audio/subtitle selections)

-Commentary by director Matt Reeves

-Document 1.18.08: The Making of “Cloverfield”
Approx 28 minutes. This is a very extensive look at the most impressive element from the film: the CGI effects. There is a great deal of behind-the-scenes footage that shows green screens, directing the extras, and rendering the computer effects. The interviews are limited, as is any discussion about the actors, the writer, or the story.
DUH! FACTOR: 2 out of 10

-“Cloverfield” Visual Effects
Approx 22 minutes. This feature is divided into six sections, each one addressing a different effects-sequence in the film. There’s the Liberty Head, The Bridge, Crossfire, Subway Parasites, Rooftop, and Central Park. Each section answers most questions you’d have about how the effects were achieved, and there are plenty of before-and-after comparison shots to show just how much CGI played a role in the finished product. This feature is along the same lines as “The Making of”, but it goes into more detail and includes more interviews with the computer folks.
DUH! FACTOR: 1 out of 10

-I saw it! It’s alive! It’s huge!
Approx 5 minutes. This feature is structured around an interview with Neville Page, the man who designed the monster, and explores how the development took place. This will give you an appreciation for the time and effort that went into creating the monster and includes some facts you almost certainly didn’t get just from watching the film itself.
DUH! FACTOR: 0 out of 10

-Clover Fun
Approx 4 minutes. Outtakes and humorous adlibs. This actually had a few laugh-out-loud moments. Some of it is crass, but it’s most of it is amusing. It’s always nice to see the comedy in a movie like this.

-Deleted Scenes
4 total. The running time for all four scenes is 3.5 minutes, but most of that is taken by footage that exists in the movie. There really aren’t deleted scenes—more like deleted lines and moments. Probably about 1.5 minutes of footage that ended up on the cutting floor.

-Alternate Ending (with optional commentary by Matt Reeves)
2 total. These are not endings that change the film in any significant way. They are simply slight alterations done to the very last seconds of the film that create (according to the director) a different kind of closure. 17 total seconds of alternateness.

Woulda Been Nice: If the same effects and general feel could have been applied without the camcorder effect. I know what they were going for, but it really made the movie difficult/frustrating to watch at times.