Top notch entertainment

Rating: 8/10 (15 May 2008)

There are event movies which are big by their nature and there are event movies that whip up hysteria and become big. Quite often, event movies don't live up to their hype. "Cloverfield" is one of the biggest examples of an event movie that only has itself to blame if it fails to live up to its expectations as it created its own hysteria. Fortunately, for the filmmakers as much as anyone else, this is magnificent, popcorn-entertainment which is cinema spectacle at its very best.
Having whipped up a burden of expectation with one of the most intriguing, effective and inventive marketing campaigns for many years, "Cloverfield" then does more to build up the tension by starting off with some of the most annoying characters for many years. They are tedious, basically because they have perfectly normal, boring problems (all of which are encapsulated in an opening party sequence that sets up the camcorder gimmick as well) and they talk like so: "Dude, he's, like, your main dude and, I love you man, but you blew her off, and man, you're going to Japan and she's crazy about you bro, like, right now". So, after twenty minutes of this you're more than happy for the violence and gratuitous destruction to begin. And when it begins, it's clear: this was worth the wait.
Like "Independence Day" and "The Day After Tomorrow", this film destroys big landmarks like there's no tomorrow. From the destruction of the Statue of Liberty to the complete end of Manhattan, director Matt Reeves pulls no punches. There are explosions, violent deaths, all of your usual disaster movie bread and butter moments, but with a twist. For large portions of the film you see very little. This is the first use of ambiguity in a film that gorges on uncertainty and it works superbly. The near misses and the small glimpses grip you and terrify you. This is due to the camcorder style cinematography which, whilst it has apparently caused motion, is particularly well done. Not quite being able to see what you would normally be given freely is enticing. It is excellent and effective film-making, at once bombastic by nature of the plot but restrained by nature of the direction. Imagine how dull this would have been if it had been directed by Michael Bay.
There is more than simple big wham-bam-thank-you-ma'm moments. There is a claustrophobic sequence in a tunnel, which provides thrills and chills. The characters' suffering makes them easy to follow and, whilst you don't love them, you do care for them. The demise of one character behind a screen is bleak and has devastating punch.
But the major strength of this film is simple. It is its ambiguity. We never have a scientist (probably called P.L. O'Texplanation) turning up telling us what the monster is or where it came from or the answers to any of the film's many other questions. We do get the inevitable payoff, but it gives us precisely zero answers. We don't, on the other hand, ever really find out the fate of most of our characters. It all builds up a web of questions, and few, if any, answers.
Which means you go away wanting more, wondering and with you imagination running wild. This is not a great film, just a terrific, thrilling and terrifying experience that will last long after you leave the cinema.