Movie Review: Cloverfield

Not watching this movie is not about saving money. I got the thing at Red Box. And not even for a lousy dollar but on one of their free Mondays.

Not watching this movie is about saving time.

Unless you are a film student learning about the art of POV (point of view) camera techniques, 84 minutes of this was 84 minutes too long.

I'm not gonna' lie, I was intrigued by the cover, which, since this was Red Box, was only the image of what the cover looked like. The Statue of Liberty, on fire. Reminiscent of 9/11. The title menu was action-packed and had bold, daring music. The opening slates had a confidential, governmental look.

And then it all went downhill after that.

The beginning of the movie has a guy recording video from a home camcorder, which, we gather later, uses mini-DV tapes. He goes to a trendy party where a bunch of twenty-somethings are seeing off a friend who is going to be going oversees for a year. They are sharing gossip about this and that.

We know something is going to happen. We've seen the burning Statue of Liberty. It's easy enough to assume at this point that the camera will just happen to be rolling at an innocous party when the disaster strikes. That in mind, it takes much too long to get to the good stuff. This movie is not a plot of character. It's a plot of action. While some movies can mix and match and add in a little plot of time, this one doesn't. So to spend 25 minutes on the party where these people are at is excessive, at best.

There's some sort of big blob that is eating New York City. What I can't figure out is how it is firing missles at buildings. Is this like Men in Black? If it is, I want to see Tommy Lee Jones!

The special effects aren't bad in this movie. And there are certainly some scary scenes. Most notably when the spawn of the big blob is tossing it's babies all over the place. It must have some serious child-baring hips because this thing has a ton of offspring. They are mixes of rats and spiders... and maybe something else that I can't put my finger on. And when they catch you in a sewer under the city, it's bad news.

Also, I do like the fact that the movie's POV camera, which is chaotic, reflects the nature of the situation, which is also chaotic.

And then...

Well, fill in the blank. The movie ends abruptly. Producer J.J. Adams and director Matt Reeves decide to go with the sudden end. The kind that would usually either keep you thinking or make you upset. And the kind of endings that are now cliche. It seems like so many intelligent movies or "smart" movies try and do the sudden ending that doesn't feel it necessary to explain everything. As if keeping things ambiguous is what makes it smarter since it, in theory, isn't narcotizing an audience like typical Hollywood blockbusters. And yet, by simply cutting it off, this story isn't complete.

Or maybe, just maybe, Adams and Reeves were almost through to the end when they realized it was so bad at 84 minutes, an additional six would only do it more of a disservice.

1-1/2 stars.