If there is one thing I have learned from watching creature-features in my lifetime, it’s that monsters love New York City. King Kong terrorized New York, although he was taken there against his will, the Beast from 20000 Fathoms rampaged through New York of his own accord. Even the fake Godzilla from the terrible 1998 American film thought New York City would be a lovely place to raise a brood of hatchlings. So, when it came time in 2008 to throw a new giant monster into the mix, what better place to have him destroy than the Big Apple. Unlike classic creature films, Cloverfield takes the audience on a journey through the eyes of the displaced masses. Basically, the story is told from the perspective of the guy that you would only see for a split second pointing and screaming in a Godzilla movie. It all comes to us via “found footage” from the hand-held camcorder of Rob Hawkins (Michael Stahl-David) and starts off with footage recorded a few days before the event in question when Rob and his formerly platonic friend Beth (Odette Yustman) have just sent a romantic night together and are planning to spend the day having fun at Coney Island. While most of this footage has been recorded over, some of it will still pop up between cuts of the primary story. The parts that have been taped over start with Rob’s brother Jason (Mike Vogal) and his girlfriend Lily (Jessica Lucas) preparing for Rob’s going-away party. You see, Rob had just accepted a job transfer to a Japanese branch of the company for which he works. The video was meant to capture everyone’s well wishes at the party so Rob would have something by which to remember all of his friends. During the preparations, camera duty is passed off to Rob and Jason’s mutual friend Hudson (T. J. Miller) or Hud for short. Hud becomes the voice behind the camera when, during Rob’s party, a tremor rocks Manhatten. When several of the party-goers perch on the roof of Rob’s apartment building to get a better look at the disturbance that caused the quake, a massive explosion in New York harbor is witnessed by all and debris from the blast rains down all around the masses.
It isn’t until the main group make it down to the street level that we find out just what is causing the disaster. While most people run for cover as something very large moves through the near-by streets, one of Jessica’s friends named Marlena (Lizzy Caplan) was in a state of shock after seeing a creature move through the city eating people. If you haven’t seen this yet, then you need to. It holds the distinction of not only succeeding in being a fantastic monster movie, but also being a fantastic movie in general with good performances from relatively unknown actors (which helps with the believability of the found footage) and a well written set of larger than life circumstances that the characters must endure. The monster’s design is one of the most original I have seen in a while, and considering how many monster related movies I watch, that’s saying something. I will admit that this is not going to be everybody’s cup of tea, especially if you find guerrilla-style or “shaky-cam” photography annoying or distracting in any way. For what it’s worth, this is one of the best giant monster movies out there, and many of its memorable moments are character related bits that don’t even feature the creature. Find it. Watch it. Love it.
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