Nelson Galaxy

******SPOILER ALERT******

Last eve I paid a visit to the cinema. I went to see the J.J. Abrams produced Cloverfield. Directed by Matt Reeves the film stars a cast of unknowns. A viral internet marketing campaign last year has made this one of the most highly anticipated movies of the year. Filmed on digital video the film documents the destruction of New York by a huge monster.

My initial reaction is that I really enjoyed it. It is fast, frenetic and exciting. Clocking in somewhere around the eighty minute mark makes it punchy and does not overstay it’s single idea welcome. The action is relentless, leaving one breathless, with a pace that never lets up. The film is also suitably nihilistic, it ends very bleakly and characters are bumped off in an unexpected order. 

The monster is not a disappointment either, starting with some tantalising glimpses of tentacles and distant shots of something destroying buildings. When we eventually see the creature it is so odd that it is striking and disconcerting. It just doesn’t seem to work, it has too many limbs and something very odd sticking out of its head.

Cloverfield is extremely derivative but it uses this to its advantage. The idea of finding shaky cam footage after the event is nothing new; see Blair Witch Project or even Cannibal Holocaust. There are a glut of upcoming films which use the first person shaky viewpoint, such as Romero’s Diary of the Dead and [Rec]. The film also owes a lot to Godzilla, which was rubbish. The monster’s offspring have been borrowed from Alien.

The film really excels in capturing some 9/11 images; the clouds of smoke billowing down the street, pieces of paper fluttering out of the sky like snow and collapsing tower blocks. (Also used by Spielberg in War of the Worlds.) There is no scientific exposition about the origins of the monster, any other film in this genre has a clipboard-carrying scientist spouting techno-babble to explain what is happening. Here everything is seen from the personal viewpoint, no presidents or generals. This is what it would be like if something terrible happened in the middle of a metropolis. Blind panic.

What are the minus points? The characters are very annoying and the first fifteen minutes are rather unbearable, once the action begins things do get better. It is extremely derivative. The monster always seems to be where the central characters are – there is the whole of Manhattan to destroy. The film slips in some unnecessary melodrama; the main character’s mission to rescue his ex-girlfriend and the nice soldier who helps them.

Rather tellingly, as I left the cinema somebody behind me said, “That was utter s**t.” Not for everybody then.

Overall though, a very good film, not a masterpiece but good entertainment. I recommend.