Cloverfield - Review & Interpretation

Rating: 7/10 (4 February 2008)

This review contains spoilers and is meant for people who have already watched the movie.
Cloverfield is an impressive movie technically; the hand held camera technique combined with high tech special effects feels so real. However, taken at face value, the plot is pretty much meaningless. A monster rampages through Manhattan, senselessly tearing down buildings and killing people. You're not told what it is, where it came from, why it's destroying the city or where it's planning to go next. At the end of the movie you are clueless too. Is this part of an invasion or a lonely stone age entity, awoken too soon from a deep slumber from the ocean floor and now has a bad headache? If so, why did it choose NYC?
To take this movie literally, there are no satisfactory answers to any of these questions. Forums are obsessing over where the monster came from, the "slurpo" connection, hidden clues, and Lost references to find answers. The viral marketing clips on youtube are telling. It is an oil drilling rig that gets destroyed. Factions are fighting over oil.
After watching the movie, I chose an interpretation that makes sense to me and gives the movie a bit more depth. I see it as an analogue of the war on terrorism and in particular, the war in Iraq.
The movie starts with an earth shattering thud and a huge explosion in the downtown area of Manhattan, very near in location to the World Trade Centre. The attack on the Statue of Liberty is clearly meant to represent an attack on the US. The home video footage is similar to the footage taken by people during 9/11. The references to 9/11 are throughout the film. Examples include the way the Woolworths building collapses generating the dust clouds, subways halted and the fact people are leaving the city via the Brooklyn Bridge. These images all seem eerily familiar. The "monster" wants to kill as many people as possible and this is seen in the way it destroys the overcrowded bridge. It has a purpose.
The creature that appears to be born out of the explosion is seemingly impossible to kill. It represents the terrorist threat and in particular the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq it spurred.
You hear the camera operator (Hud) come up with a conspiracy theory that it's something the American government created, that somehow they are at fault. You see the momentary elation that the monster has been killed by the huge arsenal of bombing directed at it only to find the monster still on the rampage (compare that to the initial bombing of Iraq and how quick the war appeared to be over when in fact it was only the beginning of a long conflict).
The monster itself has these small offshoots that act independently of the main creature. These are synonymous with suicide bombers. You see one of the actors blow up after being bitten by one.
From the civilian population, there is a lot of confusion of why did this is happening, very similar to peoples thoughts after 9/11. Apparently, at the end of the movie credits, you hear that "it's still alive" (that part of the film needs to be played backwards to hear it  see youtube).
The other possibility is that I'm probably reading too much into this film and it's just another monster movie inspired by Godzilla . . .