Don't Let Your Curiosity Get The Best Of You

Rating: 1/10 (18 January 2008)

There's an old saying about how curiosity killed the cat. My curiosity was raised by the trailer for this film I saw when I saw Transformers and the lack of anything really being said about it. So my curiosity led me to seeing the movie. And the old saying is true...seeing this almost killed me.
Don't get me wrong it's got some good stuff about it. First off the concept of doing the film from the point of view of people running around with camcorders is an original idea. It helped to ground the film in some kind of reality, something that was desperately needed in this genre. Unfortunately, nothing else does but more on that later. Then there is the special effects which were terrific, particularly with the creature and its minions (for lack of a better word). Then there's the music over the end credits by Michael Giacchino. And that's about it.
Noiw on the bad stuff...or should I say the rest of the movie? There is not one good performance from anyone in this film at all! Everyone is self-absorbed so much that you can't have sympathy for them. Not to mention that everyone in the film seems to be able to handle cameras without too much difficulty considering that they were under attack from a giant "soemthing"! I mean even the military comes across that away and it takes a stretch of logic to understand why anyone in their right mind would let an unarmed group of civilians run around Manhatten without at least some military back-up! There's no logic to it at all.
And then there's the script. The dialogue is either terrible or bad. It is just like every other disaster/monster movie ever made, except with a camcorder telling the story of a group of self-absorbed people caught in the middle. And then there's the lack of explanation. Don't get me wrong I'm a fan of 2001: A Space Odseey and Donnie Darko, two films that didn't leave too many clues as to what was going on. But those were cases where explanation wasn't necessary because they were films that didn't need it because they left you with enough to work from to come to some sort of explanation. Coverfield doesn't and its hurt big time from it. These films need (to paraphrase its writer) scientist in the white lab coat who shows up and explains things like that. As I wrote above, the idea gives a sense of reality to the movie but between the bad acting from the horrible script that gives no explanation as to what is going on.
They say every film is redeemable in at least some of its aspects. Those would be concept, the special effects and the end credits music for the record. Otherwise, Cloverfield is a disaster. In plain and simple terms that's what it is: a disaster. As I wrote, it is just like every other disaster/monster movie ever made, except with a camcorder telling the story of a group of self-absorbed people caught in the middle. Avoid the film, save your money, and don't let your curiosity get the best of you.