Better than people give it credit for...

Rating: 8/10 (20 January 2008)

I really don't like big-monster movies other than as fodder for MST3K. And this isn't so much about the monster itself as it is what the monster does. People somehow are missing that, partly because so many movies are just about the monster and some stereotype characters.
But this is different.
And it resonated with me because I understood what the film symbolized. Everyone's trying to evoke Sept. 11 and it's about that, but not the way people think. We're looking at 9-11 through the eyes of 7+ years of memory.
Think back to that horrific day when you had no idea what was happening and you just felt like an ant being fried on the sidewalk by some evil kid with a magnifying glass and you were helpless and unprepared and incapable of comprehending what was happening.
THAT is what Cloverfield is about. In the end, you have no idea what that thing was or where it came from and you doubt you'll ever know the truth...
...just like so many things in life. And when you come right down to it, disaster movies and their ilk, to me, are not about how cool the special effects and action are, but how it takes that feeling of being side-swiped by life and magnifies it so out of proportion that you don't feel so bad about it anymore by comparison when your car breaks down or you lose your job.
Sure, that sucks, but at least I'm not watching my friends get hit by flaming wreckage from some sort of towering colossal beast while everyone screams and runs.
I give it 8 out of 10. Flawed but then, so are the events in life.
And if there was a real giant monster attack, you can believe it would occur like this.