I love me some monster movies. You get a big monster wreaking havoc and causing copious amounts of destruction? Inject it straight into my veins. 'Cloverfield' (2008) is a film that fits into this category. I remember hearing a lot about the film upon its release and I'm pretty sure it was the film of choice for more than one teacher at my high school (not sure how it fits into a Catholic school curriculum but I wasn't complaining). And yet, I didn't remember all that much about it. I remembered visuals from the film much more than any story beats or narrative. Upon rewatch it became pretty clear why this was. The film follows a group of friends who are at a party to celebrate one of their friend's, Rob (Michael Stahl-David), new job in Japan. His best friend, Hud (TJ Miller), is tasked with documenting the party on his video camera. While at the party the city suddenly comes under attack from a an unknown force, and a small group of the party find themselves together as they attempt to escape Manhattan and get to safety.
For those of you who don't know, this film is a found footage style film. This immediately means that it suffers from the problems of all found footage films, namely shaky cam and all the narrative issues of a guy refusing to put a camera down despite the absolute mayhem going on around him. It isn't my favourite style of filmmaking but it can be done well and this film does do it well. It even has a couple moments where the camera is placed in a way where it creates a good moments of cinematography. Visually I can't complain to much about this film. The practical and CGI effects are both done really well and still hold up for the most part. The practical effects in particular are really impressive and, when put alongside the great set design, create a sense of realism that adds so much to the film. It looks like New York is crumbling throughout and I rarely found myself thinking that something was just being done on a sound stage or with green screen. The action scenes in this film are also great. They show enough without showing to much (until they want to) and they are filled with thrills, excitements and scares which work. The problem that these scenes have are that there aren't enough of them. There is a lot of downtown in the film where the characters are not in immediate danger and are just questioning what they should do next. And I really just didn't care. Maybe when you first watch the film the suspense of not really knowing what is happening is enough to get you through these scenes but when you already know you're just waiting for the action scenes to happen. Also, if your monster film is less than an hour and half, maybe don't spend the first twenty minutes at a party with annoying characters where no monster shit happens.
Speaking of annoying characters lets talk about them. First I'll mention the acting. It is all fine. No one does badly and they play there characters well. It feels real when they are scared or confused and the actors had good chemistry which made there relationships feel real. None of the characters have super defined personalities which makes them pretty hard to empathise with, but they are mostly just lambs for the slaughter so it doesn't matter all that much. But this paragraph isn't about the acting. This is a rant about Hud. Not about TJ Miller, who I think does a fine job playing Hud, but about the character of Hud. Fuck this character. Could the filmmakers have picked a more infuriating character to HOLD THE CAMERA IN YOUR FOUND FOOTAGE FILM?! This is the guy who takes us where we need to go, when he says anything we hear it (And boy does he chat) and you decided to make him one of the most annoying characters in film history? There was a moment in the film where I audibly said 'shut the fuck up' to this character. He is meant to be the kind of dumb but sympathetic friend who you grow to like. Nah. His kind of dumb means he is actually just a dick and I couldn't stand the guy. Maybe the lockdown is making me easier to anger, but I don't know. I think this character is just that annoying. That's it, I'm done ranting.
'Cloverfield' is a film I should really like, but I find it mostly boring. The moments where the monster is destroying shit are great. They're well shot and exciting and are easily the best moments of the film. The problem is that they are surrounded by dull moments where very little happens. The characters are also not developed well enough for their personal struggles to carry these moments. You just sit there waiting for these moments to end so you can get back to the big monster. Also, you have one of the most annoying characters ever created by man holding the camera and it generally makes these downtime moments quite unbearable at times. If you fancy a really short monster movie then you might want to give it a watch, but I wouldn't bother. Watch any Godzilla film instead.