Imagine The Blair Witch Project, multiplied in adrenoline and sophistication by 1,000, and placed in the science fiction genre. That's as good a way as any to begin describing the effect of Cloverfield, which raises the standard for digital filmmaking and goes a long way toward making moviegoing an ever more immersive and visceral experience.
In the 20th century, when on-the-scene media journalism was in its infancy, writers sometimes used the point of view of a news reporter to lend a sense of immediacy and realism to the telling of incredible events. Orson Welles' radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds used this stoytelling technique with legendary results, and the English language version of the original Godzilla, began with a traumatized reporter describing his witnessing the destruction of Tokyo.
Cloverfield is, in essence, a Godzilla for a new generation, the generation of viral video and amateur news capturing.
In the tradition of past science fiction landmarks, it integrates several modern social phenomena - the ubiquity of personal video cameras, the nightmare quality of horror-themed video games like Doom and Half-Life, and the potential for natural disasters caused by changes in the environment. The latter theme is only suggested in the most off-handed way, and the makers of Cloverfield are to be commended for not turning their story into a heavy-handed political statement or a vehicle for readily identifiable stars who would have lessened the sense of seeing everyday people caught up in a horrific maelstrom of destruction.
The realism with which that earthshaking destruction is created in special effects and integrated into what appears to be live-action camcorder footage is truly an effective means of amping the frenetic terror.
The story begins during a surprise going away party at which a socially awkward but goodnatured friend named Hud is pressed into service as a videographer
to record farewells and testimonials for the guest of honor. The events of the night are seen in retrospect through the eye of the camera, interspersed with brief bits of footage remaining on tape from a previous recording, footage of the departing friend Rob and his estranged girlfriend Beth.
Normalcy is shattered when a distant explosion
rocks the night and the severed head of the Statue of Liberty crashes out of the sky onto the street outside the party. Panic seizes all of New York after blasts and fires continue in Manahattan, caused by an unseen attacker. A fateful decision by Rob to run to the aid of the injured Beth across town leads Hud and a handful of friends into a hellish scene of death and monstrous horrors.
Cloverfield is a B movie with A-list production values, and a novelty format that is masterfully
executed. Some less than perfect acting performances detract a bit from the hyper-real documentary quality of the filmmaking, and the THX sound strains camcorder credibility while enhancing the thrills, but this is still the best sci-fi horror blockbuster to hit movie screens in many years.
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