Fresh, intense, and exciting all around.... but does "Clovi" dethrone Godzilla?

Rating: 7/10 (27 June 2011)

I never got the chance to review this movie, but now that JJ Abrams has released yet another monster movie blockbuster (Super 8, 2011), I thought maybe people would be turned on to Cloverfield. Perhaps this review might offer some insight on the film, but probably not...
In a time of remakes and Sex in the City, Cloverfield was exactly what Hollywood and cinema all over the world needed and it was refreshing to see an all but forgotten genre revisited.
With the perfect marketing strategy, JJ Abrams and his production company Bad Robot had interested movie-goers on pins and needles as clues revealed more of what Cloverfield was about. An extensive viral marketing campaign, some of which is still up today, brought amazing depth into this movie. Although very little of the viral marketing is referenced in the film, those who watched carefully the prior year of the film's release were treated to a spectacle nonetheless. And even after all this hype, Cloverfield excellently delivered.
The whole style in which the film was shot is important, because I believe it's a realistic reaction of today's society. In a metropolis like New York City, homw to millions, there is bound to be thousands or even tens of thousands of video cameras in operation at any given moment - web-cams, cell phone cams, handhelds... You know it kind of reminds me of the "tornado" event that swept through New York City last year (2010). The following day, there were hundreds of videos uploaded to Youtube documenting all the different perspectives from different areas of the city. Of course this is also reminiscent of 9/11. Nothing brings more closure to a situation than seeing it from eyewitness points of view, where the intensity of the event is not just seen but more-so experienced. A lot of people docked Cloverfield for the shaky, awkward hand-held camera style but it just wouldn't have worked any other way.
While I think it was a pretty genius idea it also presents an awkward point to build a sequel from too. Should it also be shot in hand-held? If it were, than would it really be worth seeing in theaters again? It was an intense effect, but I don't think it would be as marketable a second time.
The actors are decent but definitely no Oscar winning roles here. While they do provide enough of a emotional connection to the audience to really bring them into the movie, the only real flaws are the inconsistencies in behaviors and really forced dialogue. It didn't help JJ Abrams to keep the movie so secret that not even the cast had a full understanding of what was happening and sometimes it shows as the dialogue and reactions seem random at times and "no-sells" certain effects or even a whole scene. For example, there is no dialogue about the monster or the event itself - most of the dialogue revolves around Rob's lost girlfriend, who they set out to rescue instead of saving themselves. In fact I don't think they ever mention the monster or the parasites that drop from it. It's pretty awkward that the only real dialogue about what's going on is mainly gathered from newscasts or military jargon happening in the background. The actors do simply a satisfactory job with what they had to work with - which is saying a lot because they had nothing to work with in the first place.
The real star of the show is of course Clovi (the monster), of who JJ Abrams reveals bits and pieces of throughout the movie. He doesn't seem to have any particular superpower but even though his lungs are located outside of his body Clovi is impervious to explosions and all kinds of different military ammunition. His mannerisms on camera seem animalistic but otherwise he seems to have some sort of political agenda when not in the frame of Hud's hand-held. In the production diary on the DVD, he's described as a confused baby that's maybe defending itself in an unknown alien world, but ripping off the statue of liberty's head and tossing it across the city directly in front of Hud could earn him some votes in Iran, Russia, or North Korea. Now Clovi seems to get around despite the fact we don't see him move too much in the scenes he's in. Mostly he's roaring at the camera while the military frantically fires away, doing as much damage to the city as the monster (see War on Iraq). But he seems to be heading to the same part of town as our band of heroes because wouldn't you know it - they just keep bumping into each other!
Well... JJ Abrams claimed that he wanted America to have its own monster and to have its own franchise comparable to Godzilla in Japan, in which apparently there are entire stores devoted to the King of Monsters.
The reason why Cloverfield doesn't live up to Godzilla is because it would had to have been released at that time in Cinema when monster movies were the big thing, way back in the 1950's and 1960's. Hell, they could've had a competitive run back in the 1980's even... but for today's audience a monster movie is more of a cliché, corny spectacle rather than a truly scary experience. There was a time that Hollywood was over-saturated with the same old monster movie, remade time and time again. So right of the bat, the timing of Cloverfield is way off - by two decades at least. But then again, it was refreshing.