It Worked For Me

Rating: 8/10 (21 March 2009)

Cloverfield is the most memorable movie I saw lately. There are many comments here about the hand-held camera, so I will lay that aspect to rest, if only to underline that no regular hand-held camera can have such audio pickups. The movie is a treat on the ears, as one can hear the monster blundering around and trumpeting eerily all over the town.
So this is not your everyday rampaging-giant-monster-attacking-the-town. In these types of movies, you always see the thing from above, after being lectured about the "folly of man". You feel omniscient, and safe. Well not here. Here, and up to the movie's very end, the spectator knows nothing about the thing, the harbinger of the End. Another interesting twist in the recording that was on the tape used to make the movie (and that we get to see when the new recording stops), images of unmarred happiness that contrast sharply with the apocalypse going on on the new recording. These moment are not only emotional and nostalgic, but it might also inadvertly reveal some clues.
"Clover" itself is a freakish work of art, and it takes some time before the spectator can figure it out; A cross between a bat, a squid and a dinosaur, it also sheds deadly, fearsome parasites that can take on the characters on a more personal basis. This is a great idea.
The new coming actors were great, and performing just in the right tone, no more, no less. The women in particular are insanely beautiful, but I believed them all the same. There were quite tough, too, and I seriously doubt that people could walk like that after a helicopter crash, for one, but it wasn't too distracting.
The party scene at the start was a bit long, thought, but it did make for an almost unexpected attacks as I finally lend an interest to the little personal story that was developed there.
I am pretty sure it isn't the last time we see "Clover" or its ilk; Clearly, the plot is a lot larger than what this microscopic outlook presented. There is a lot of the story we still haven't see.
The musical score, which only takes place during the credits, is more fitting for a classical Japanese movie of this genre, but in its own right, it is also a classic.
In conclusion, here is a movie worth talking about.