Say, did you hear anything about this movie that opens today, Cloverfield? No? Yeah, it’s kind of a [Spoiler Alert!] obscure art-house thing, all shot with a camcorder from the perspective of a few friends fleeing a massive monster smashing Manhattan. We attended a screening earlier in the week and deemed it top-shelf disaster porn; though the main characters are rather annoying and the apocalypse takes a little too long to blast off, “by the time that massive beast slouches toward lower Manhattan, bowling the head of the Lady Liberty with a nonchalance befitting the Bush administration, you’ll be almost as bloodthirsty as the monster.” And blood you’ll get, along with spectacular special effects and almost relentless suspense.
At the moment, Cloverfield is enjoying a 76% approval rating at the Rotten Tomatoes aggregate. Most of the web reviewers and the regional press are eating it up, while the big city sophisticates where the story takes place are recoiling. Not that her opinion matters much for Cloverfield at the box office, but the Times’s Manohla Dargis did not like it:
Like Cloverfield itself, this new monster is nothing more than a blunt instrument designed to smash and grab without Freudian complexity or political critique, despite the tacky allusions to Sept. 11… It works as a showcase for impressively realistic-looking special effects, a realism that fails to extend to the scurrying humans whose fates are meant to invoke pity and fear but instead inspire yawns and contempt. Rarely have I rooted for a monster with such enthusiasm.
Which we think is half the fun. The Daily News review tepidly agreed, calling it “fun in its morbidly campy way.” The New York Observer’s Sara Vilkomerson says “the movie feels like one of those out-of-control roller coasters where halfway through the ride, you reconsider the wisdom of getting on in the first place.” Which is funny, because we’re ready to go again. But Grady Hendrix at the Sun gets the last laugh:
It's big. Really, really big. So huge, in fact, that you can see it from practically any street corner in Manhattan. It consumes everything in its path. It induces panicked, frenzied behavior in adults. Even on a purely technical level it takes your breath away when you realize its scale, when you grasp how much time and money went into making it work, when you understand its complexity… It is the marketing campaign for Cloverfield, which finally reaches theaters on Friday.
Take his wife, please. Hendrix also deserves credit for his description of the monster that fanboys have been so anxious to glimpse: “Like some tourist from the Midwest, once the creature stumbles into Manhattan and visits Central Park and the Empire State Building, there's nothing left for it to do but knock around aimlessly, getting in trouble and making a mess on the sidewalks.”
Don't fight the hype; just surrender. Let it happen. Join the Facebook fan page, grab some killer ring tones and wallpaper for your cell phone. Read our interview with director Matt Reeves, buy a T-shirt, and secure tickets in advance.
