Movie Review: Cloverfield - Monster Hype, Mini Movie

Can there be a movie trailer that is so good that no matter what the final product is it cannot live up to the hype? Cloverfield may be a case of just that. This past weekend the wait finally ended. We finally got to see what exactly ripped the head off the Statue of Liberty and tossed it into Manhattan. Unfortunately, Cloverfield could not live up to its monster potential in a full length film.

Since the monster movie's inception Hollywood has been relentless in its assault upon the Big Apple, whether an over-sized ape or the "State-Puff Marshmallow Man", Manhattan has taken its lumps like no other American city.

How do film makers create an original yet terrifying approach to this much treaded turf? The answer seemed so simple you could literally hold it in the palm of your hand. Film the entire movie with a camcorder.

Suddenly we don't have a man in a lizard suit smashing toy houses. We are swept up into the fray not as a casual observer but as one of the hunted. One doesn't have to look far to see where the inspiration came from in choosing to film a disaster in this format. The parallels of this movie and 9/11 are quite clear. This is where the movie exercises its stranglehold on our deepest and darkest fears. Wherein, here is where the genius of the film lies. In its ability of reaching inside our own heads to bring out into the light our memories of 9/11 and even the typhoon in Asia, as a first-person narrative shot on a camcorder. There is only a little stretch of the imagination as the characters in this story feel the earth shake as events unfold only a few miles away, but what seems like another side of the world because they can't see what is there. The monolith buildings that make up your world suddenly loom, blocking your ability to know what is happening, what is coming your way. Our imagination is really what makes a monster movie scary. Being unable to see is the cause of our greatest fears. The unknown is what sparked this movie into a wildfire of excitement.

Once we see the monster which comes far too early in the far too short of a film (87 minutes with credits), we lose the fear. Suddenly we think, "oh, so it's a giant !@#$." Fine, what else you got? A plot based on character development? No. Great popcorn action? Not really, the gimmick of the camcorder doesn't allow for the breathtaking sweep and grandiose pose. At least Cloverfield has the excitement of the hunt, even if we are the prey.