Here is a disaster movie told by the victims that brings a few fresh things to the genre.
Too often a monster movie will simply be an excuse for a director to destroy the world in a burst of visual decadence. Also common to disaster movies is preaching; from the atomic parables of 1950's Godzilla to the glory days of disaster flicks: the Vietnam-torn 1970's, screenwriters have a nasty habit of bombarding the audience with obvious metaphors. "Cloverfield" manages to break free of these trappings and is consistently intense and entertaining, and yes, even a little scary.
"Cloverfield" is filmed in a low-key, home video style and features a cast of unknowns. The characters are far easier to care about than the scientists and generals who often inhabit disaster movies. Producer J.J. Abrams (of "Lost" fame) also scores some points by not wasting too much time blowing stuff up and avoiding altogether any political parallels.
The cast of first-timers works hard to play it straight and succeeds. Even though the thin plot and lack of monster (which we do not get a good look at for most of the film) may disappoint more avid sci-fi fans, it mercifully spares the rest of us a lot of speeches.
The film begins with various New York City twenty-somethings preparing a surprise party for our hero Rob (Michael Stahl-David). Hud (T. J. Miller), who is Rob's bumbling-yet-likeable best friend, is given a camera and told to interview the partygoers.
These interviews and snippets of conversations around the party allow us to piece together a basic idea of who all is sleeping with whom.
With this information handy, we are ready for the terror to commence. The party is interrupted by a blackout that happens to coincide with a loud noise. Soon there are distant explosions, flying bits of flaming debris, screaming, sirens, and indistinct glimpses of a huge, vaguely reptilian monster.
The rest of "Cloverfield," like any good disaster flick, concerns itself with our likeable group of victims trying to escape. All of this is captured on film by Hud, who also serves as narrator.
"Cloverfield" has its flaws. After a good deal of buildup, the revealing of the monster itself is fairly underwhelming and anyone looking for Oscar-worthy depth in the dialogue is going to be disappointed. In the end, for most people, the film's worth boils down to two questions: Is it watchable and entertaining from start to finish and will it show us anything new? The answer to both of these questions is yes.
The movie is watchable because the effects are top-notch and the lean script never insults the audience's intelligence. As for showing us something new, the film's effective disaster atmosphere combined with outstanding sound mixing are exciting without being mind-blowing.
Every now and then, however, "Cloverfield" bares its teeth. One scene in particular involving an airborne escape near the film's end is so convincing and intense that it alone is worth the price of admission, and thankfully does not have to be, because the rest of the movie is not half bad.
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