Cloverfield was Cool!

Rating: 7/10 (11 January 2008)

A few caveats. I'm not a monster-movie person. I didn't even know what Cloverfield was. I didn't know that they had played an advance trailer at Transformer screenings (didn't see Transformers). I didn't know that all the secrecy combined with the street credibility of J. J. Abrams had turned the whole thing into an "event". And I really, really hate movies that make me nauseous with their shaky hand-held camera action (How 'bout a tripod, Paul Greengrass?). That said, my husband told me to show up at 7pm and I did since I'm always up for a free movie and especially for something that is an advance screening (I feel like I am in the cool-kids-club!).
Turns out that I really liked this movie! Uncomfortable chair, small screen and bad audio aside (it was a university lecture hall), I was on the edge of my seat the entire time and didn't relax even after getting home. So what makes this film different? The home/hand held video taping made me feel like I was running around New York City in the dark with the characters (and oddly, I wasn't nauseous!). The characters, mostly unknown actors, seemed like real people I might know or meet at a party and were truly genuine in their fear and their decision-making (i.e., not Drew Barrymore answering the phone). Going down into the subway was a little suspect, but given the action on the streets, I may have made the same decision. I came to like the characters - mostly Hud - and could even stomach the romantic back story. I really wanted them to make it out alive(though not sure where they'd go, Maplewood, New Jersey?). I didn't get a clear view of the monster until late in the movie which kept my attention. The human-sized spider/crab monsters that seemingly rolled off the mama-monster (must be a "she", was pretty angry) were totally creepy and also mysterious. All good stuff.
Just a few things that I question but all are minor. First, how could Lily run around escaping a monster in high heels? Second, how is it that only Marlena was bitten by the mini-monster in the subway (and what happened to her, by the way?) And third, did Hud have a super-duper camera battery? With all the night focusing, that thing should have died long before all the characters did.
After Jason died on the bridge pretty early on, I knew it was a different kind of movie (the anti-Lost, things actually are happening!) and as the characters were killed off one by one, I started to ponder how it was all going to end. And then it did just that, it abruptly ended! I'm usually a guy-gets-girl-happy-ending-closure-type gal and this was definitely not that. So we'll never know what the monster was or what ended up happening to it or New York City or why Cloverfied is formerly Central Park. But I remain one non-monster-movie fan who liked this one. I'm even contemplating taking in a matinée 2nd viewing! Go check it out!