the_plunk (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} the_plunk) wrote,@ 2008-01-19 03:39:00 |
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Ethan Haas was right: it's a lion, and it's huge!
I saw Cloverfield today, and it was good. I'll review behind the cut--spoiler-free this time-- even though I can't find many relevant pictures to caption. In brief, the movie completely delivers for what it is; and what it is is a mopey relationship drama that gets attacked by monsters. It's great because the characters don't belong in the movie they're in and keep behaving like they're in some Noah Baumbach movie despite all the missiles and sci-fi nonsense. And actually, it might secretly be a really good relationship movie because of that. Also, the credits feature the best Michael Giacchino music I've ever heard; it's way better than the usual sad violins and surprised horns (and surprised violins and sad horns, to be fair) he does for Lost. So, check it out.
Ok, so this is really a movie about people and disasters, specifically the phenomenon of people filming disasters while they're in the middle of them. It reminded me of nothing so much as the video a survivor of the Mount St. Helens eruption made as he tried to get himself rescued. The great thing this movie does is to realize that being in a disaster always looks really confusing and alienating, and so it takes that and runs with it by having the disaster be a monster that comes out of nowhere and destroys the city with no explanation. There's absolutely no exposition in this movie, except where it fills in the personal relationships of the characters, and that makes it really great. In terms of pure human drama, this is pretty great, gut-wrenching, engaging stuff. Although the plot kind of falls into the action of a more typical disaster movie like the one where volcanoes attack New York or Los Angeles or wherever, when the lead character goes off to find the member of the group who got separated and is in mortal danger, he does it out of recognizable human emotions like guilt and shame and stupidity and a sense that he doesn't know what else to do.
Like I said above though, making the disaster be a monster creates a lot of dissonance since it drops a gaggle of witty twentysomethings with relationship troubles into that terrible Ferris Buehler Godzilla movie. The movie makes this work to its advantage too, though, since Cloverfield is also kind of commentary on how deeply unsatisfying and almost absurdly inhumane typical action movies really are. We spend most of the movie with some kind-of narcissistic but likable-enough normal people, who endure all manner of horrible sci-fi nastiness and incredible trauma while the Colverfield monster does the typical smashing of the world's armies and mindless swatting of the world's architecture. In fact, the movie hits pretty much sci-fi cliche I can think of, but it does it through the perspective of desperate, miserable people who don't care what's happening and have no means of understanding it. There's a part in the middle, though, where they wander into a military fortification and hang out with an army guy who's clearly been pulled out of the Ferris Buehler Godzilla movie. He talks in empty cliches with all the phony baloney portentousness of Bill Pullman in Independence Day; the one line I can remember from him is something like "We don't know what that thing is, but it's winning" while he stares off into the middle distance. When a character like that enters the company of the ones the movie's following, it's obvious how very unrealistic everything about him is. Similarly, there's a part near the end of the movie where a b-52 drops a lot of bombs on the monster and visibly wounds it for the first time, and it looks like something out of a conventional monster movie, to the point where it wouldn't be a surprise to learn that WIll Smith is flying that plane and cracking wise. And it wouldn't be inconsistent with what we see to extrapolate that he ends up saving the day by leaping out of his plane and miraculously exploiting the monster's one unexpected weakness. Somewhere in the universe of Cloverfield, Rod Steiger is explaining to President Morgan Freeman that nuking the city is the only option, while Science Advisor Beau Bridges pleads that he give Will Smith more time to get the highly experimental laser ready to use, because his estranged wife Geena Davis and rebellious son Shia Lebeouf are still in the city.
But all that Dean Devlin tripe just comes off as utterly hollow and worthless as it really is when Cloverfield suggests that it's happening off-camera, since this movie shows us what's happening to everyone who's not Will Smith's heroic dog, and it really lets you know that there's a lot of dramatic potential those movies aren't smart enough to know exists. But Cloverfield gets it right away, and I like that.
That said, it's not perfect either. There's one event that's unlikely enough that it probably shouldn't have happened, or at least should not have been resolved successfully, and there are two occasions where everyone probably should have died. Also, the shaky-cam is a little annoying. It's not as distracting as in the Blair Witch Project, and the movie even tries to downplay it by shaking the camera around really gratuitously for a few minutes before calming things down at the start of the movie, but my sense of equilibrium is too smart to fall for a trick like that.
One last problem sort of makes up for a problem I usually have with movies. Typically, I have trouble remembering the names of the characters in the movies I see, but Cloverfield fixed this problem by making the last third of the movie sound like this:
Rob: Beth! Beth! Beth...Be- Beth. Other Guy! Other Guy! Beth....are you-Beth! Beth. Beth..do-.Beth. BethBethBeth. Beth! Other G-Beth! Other Guy! Beth! Beth! Beth...Be- Beth. Other Guy! Other Guy! Beth....are you-Beth! Beth. Beth..do-.Beth. BethBethBeth. Beth! Other G-Beth! Beth.
Beth: Rob! Rob! Rob! Rob...what's-Rob! RobRobRob...Other Guy? Other Guy! Rob...Rob. Rob! Rob! Rob! Rob...what's-Rob! RobRobRob...Other Guy? Other Guy! Rob...Rob.Rob! Rob! Rob! Rob...what's-Rob! RobRobRob...Other Guy? Other Guy! Rob...Rob. Rob! Rob! Rob! ........Rob!
Other Guy: Rob! Rob! Beth! Beth! Beth...Be- Beth. Rob! Dude! Beth....Rob! Rob! Rob! Rob...what's-Rob!. Beth! Dude...Rob! Rob! Rob! Rob...what's-Rob! RobRobRob...Beth? Rob...Rob. Beth! Rob! Rob! Rob...what's-Rob! RobBethRob.. Rob...Rob.
It's like a crash course in the characters' names, which I kind of appreciate but also really don't. Yeah, I praised the realism of the characters' responses and personalities, but I'm fine with a little uncomfortable silence every once in a while too. Also, I realized just now that I forgot the other guy's name, and that there are two other characters whose names I didn't learn.
Overall, it's a pretty excellent film that I'm glad I didn't know much about before I went to see it. Now, I have been following the online Slusho nonsense because internet games are my one mortal weakness. But, just like every other ARG I've ever followed, this one told me nothing relevant to the plot of the film. It was fun to follow, but I'm not sure I learned anything about the movie and I'm honestly kind of glad for that. I say check it out if you have the time.
I saw Cloverfield today, and it was good. I'll review behind the cut--spoiler-free this time-- even though I can't find many relevant pictures to caption. In brief, the movie completely delivers for what it is; and what it is is a mopey relationship drama that gets attacked by monsters. It's great because the characters don't belong in the movie they're in and keep behaving like they're in some Noah Baumbach movie despite all the missiles and sci-fi nonsense. And actually, it might secretly be a really good relationship movie because of that. Also, the credits feature the best Michael Giacchino music I've ever heard; it's way better than the usual sad violins and surprised horns (and surprised violins and sad horns, to be fair) he does for Lost. So, check it out.
Ok, so this is really a movie about people and disasters, specifically the phenomenon of people filming disasters while they're in the middle of them. It reminded me of nothing so much as the video a survivor of the Mount St. Helens eruption made as he tried to get himself rescued. The great thing this movie does is to realize that being in a disaster always looks really confusing and alienating, and so it takes that and runs with it by having the disaster be a monster that comes out of nowhere and destroys the city with no explanation. There's absolutely no exposition in this movie, except where it fills in the personal relationships of the characters, and that makes it really great. In terms of pure human drama, this is pretty great, gut-wrenching, engaging stuff. Although the plot kind of falls into the action of a more typical disaster movie like the one where volcanoes attack New York or Los Angeles or wherever, when the lead character goes off to find the member of the group who got separated and is in mortal danger, he does it out of recognizable human emotions like guilt and shame and stupidity and a sense that he doesn't know what else to do.
Like I said above though, making the disaster be a monster creates a lot of dissonance since it drops a gaggle of witty twentysomethings with relationship troubles into that terrible Ferris Buehler Godzilla movie. The movie makes this work to its advantage too, though, since Cloverfield is also kind of commentary on how deeply unsatisfying and almost absurdly inhumane typical action movies really are. We spend most of the movie with some kind-of narcissistic but likable-enough normal people, who endure all manner of horrible sci-fi nastiness and incredible trauma while the Colverfield monster does the typical smashing of the world's armies and mindless swatting of the world's architecture. In fact, the movie hits pretty much sci-fi cliche I can think of, but it does it through the perspective of desperate, miserable people who don't care what's happening and have no means of understanding it. There's a part in the middle, though, where they wander into a military fortification and hang out with an army guy who's clearly been pulled out of the Ferris Buehler Godzilla movie. He talks in empty cliches with all the phony baloney portentousness of Bill Pullman in Independence Day; the one line I can remember from him is something like "We don't know what that thing is, but it's winning" while he stares off into the middle distance. When a character like that enters the company of the ones the movie's following, it's obvious how very unrealistic everything about him is. Similarly, there's a part near the end of the movie where a b-52 drops a lot of bombs on the monster and visibly wounds it for the first time, and it looks like something out of a conventional monster movie, to the point where it wouldn't be a surprise to learn that WIll Smith is flying that plane and cracking wise. And it wouldn't be inconsistent with what we see to extrapolate that he ends up saving the day by leaping out of his plane and miraculously exploiting the monster's one unexpected weakness. Somewhere in the universe of Cloverfield, Rod Steiger is explaining to President Morgan Freeman that nuking the city is the only option, while Science Advisor Beau Bridges pleads that he give Will Smith more time to get the highly experimental laser ready to use, because his estranged wife Geena Davis and rebellious son Shia Lebeouf are still in the city.
But all that Dean Devlin tripe just comes off as utterly hollow and worthless as it really is when Cloverfield suggests that it's happening off-camera, since this movie shows us what's happening to everyone who's not Will Smith's heroic dog, and it really lets you know that there's a lot of dramatic potential those movies aren't smart enough to know exists. But Cloverfield gets it right away, and I like that.
That said, it's not perfect either. There's one event that's unlikely enough that it probably shouldn't have happened, or at least should not have been resolved successfully, and there are two occasions where everyone probably should have died. Also, the shaky-cam is a little annoying. It's not as distracting as in the Blair Witch Project, and the movie even tries to downplay it by shaking the camera around really gratuitously for a few minutes before calming things down at the start of the movie, but my sense of equilibrium is too smart to fall for a trick like that.
One last problem sort of makes up for a problem I usually have with movies. Typically, I have trouble remembering the names of the characters in the movies I see, but Cloverfield fixed this problem by making the last third of the movie sound like this:
Rob: Beth! Beth! Beth...Be- Beth. Other Guy! Other Guy! Beth....are you-Beth! Beth. Beth..do-.Beth. BethBethBeth. Beth! Other G-Beth! Other Guy! Beth! Beth! Beth...Be- Beth. Other Guy! Other Guy! Beth....are you-Beth! Beth. Beth..do-.Beth. BethBethBeth. Beth! Other G-Beth! Beth.
Beth: Rob! Rob! Rob! Rob...what's-Rob! RobRobRob...Other Guy? Other Guy! Rob...Rob. Rob! Rob! Rob! Rob...what's-Rob! RobRobRob...Other Guy? Other Guy! Rob...Rob.Rob! Rob! Rob! Rob...what's-Rob! RobRobRob...Other Guy? Other Guy! Rob...Rob. Rob! Rob! Rob! ........Rob!
Other Guy: Rob! Rob! Beth! Beth! Beth...Be- Beth. Rob! Dude! Beth....Rob! Rob! Rob! Rob...what's-Rob!. Beth! Dude...Rob! Rob! Rob! Rob...what's-Rob! RobRobRob...Beth? Rob...Rob. Beth! Rob! Rob! Rob...what's-Rob! RobBethRob.. Rob...Rob.
It's like a crash course in the characters' names, which I kind of appreciate but also really don't. Yeah, I praised the realism of the characters' responses and personalities, but I'm fine with a little uncomfortable silence every once in a while too. Also, I realized just now that I forgot the other guy's name, and that there are two other characters whose names I didn't learn.
Overall, it's a pretty excellent film that I'm glad I didn't know much about before I went to see it. Now, I have been following the online Slusho nonsense because internet games are my one mortal weakness. But, just like every other ARG I've ever followed, this one told me nothing relevant to the plot of the film. It was fun to follow, but I'm not sure I learned anything about the movie and I'm honestly kind of glad for that. I say check it out if you have the time.
