Stomps all over Roland Emmerich's Godzilla

Rating: 8/10 (10 February 2008)

Only once in a rare while are we treated to a movie so innovative and unique. It's sad to think that there will only be so many film-going experiences like Cloverfield in my life while the void is filled with more generic fare. In terms of story it is very similar to the awful 1998 clunker Godzilla, but is a world apart when it comes to execution.
Everyone by now knows the premise of the filming of a loft party being interrupted by the arrival of a giant monster in Manhattan, so I won't go into loads of description over that. I'm a firm believer in the fact that the camera is the eyes of the person watching the film and with Cloverfield (like The Blair Witch Project before it) we are put right into the central character's shoes as he stumbles around the darkest corners of the city with his ever diminishing group of friends.
It's been repeated a million times, but I too believe that what we DON'T see is scarier than what we do. Once you bring the monster out of the shadows all the mystery and fear evaporates. For the majority of the movie we never really get to see all of the monster, perhaps a tentacle here or a foot there, but not much of the whole thing. We do get to see a lot of the ugly parasites that cling to its body however.
There are some brilliant and eternally memorable scenes in Cloverfield, the best being hard to nail down but I loved the idea of entering a crooked skyscraper via the deserted tower that it's leaning against. What a truly unique set-piece.
Of course the movie is going to have it's critics and there will be plenty who are not satisfied with the ending. JJ Abrams has said that he plans to do a single sequel from another point of view, but I feel this will ruin the magic.
In fact, JJ Abrams' marketing campaign and back-story has already tarnished the film for me a little bit. He has stated that the monster comes from the sea but I prefer to not know for certain where it comes from. I imagined it coming from outer space myself as the idea of a random creature arriving from the infinite darkness of space to far more terrifying than a monster from the limited environment of our own oceans. And the viral marketing is way out of hand. Let me put set it all straight.
Rob Hawkins has been made vice president of a company in Japan. That company is the Slusho soft drink firm. Marlena is seen drinking plenty of Slusho at the beginning of the film. The parasites on the creature apparently eat the secret ingredient of Slusho deep in the ocean. They smelled this on her, which explains why she is the only one of the group who is bitten. The near-unnoticeable 'splash' in the water at the end of the film is part of a satellite which has fallen out of space and apparently wakes up the monster somehow.
What a load of garbage! Is Rob Hawkins the centre of the universe or something? Why is all this contrived crap revolving around him? Why they came up with this drivel instead of leaving it all unexplained is beyond me. Nevertheless, I will still be looking forward to the sequel next year.