RojoCloverfield
Cloverfield, Blair Witch Project combines with End of Days, and in my opinion gets away with it.
Matt Reeves crony of JJ Abraham cashed in a favour I suppose and said “JJ bro I got this idea, how about if we get like this Blair Witch thing going on and we rub some War of the Worlds over it. JJ probably said “yeah man sounds cool” and quick as a trick Reeve’s whips out a script from Drew Goddard and Cloverfield was born.
Apart from the Blair Witch concept this is pretty original, which I guess makes it unoriginal.
The terror is ratcheted up from the first person documentation of the events that make the plot. A normal night, a leaving party for a likable guy and his dopey friend has been enlisted to capture people goodbye messages to him. A monster (yes a monster) decides to crash this party (that is playing pretty cool music, the party that is, not the monster) and in doing so wrecks havoc on New York city.
A few of the party goes band together and try to make a run out of New York, trapped, and unable to escape the focus turns to love. The likable guy has to make a suicide run to free the woman he most desires, the other in the group have nothing better to do so come along for the ride.
Because of the first person angle we get may shots of feet running away with quick flashes of this massive monster. All the while the army is hopelessly trying to combat the monsters onslaught and the heroes of the story are travelling through the battlefield. Dodging falling building, cars flung like pebbles it’s really cool thing to behold.
So what did I think over all, I thought it was pretty cool flick, flick being the optimum word. Sunday night laying on the couch with a flu coming on I was as engaged as I could be, which was quiet a lot. Seeing New York being smashed to smithereens by a monster whose beef I had no idea of through a first person camera really worked. I think there was twice when I asked myself ’how would this be if it was shot using different angles’?
The answer I think is we wouldn’t have near the movie experience we get with the first person all the way. Cloverfield would just be another Godzilla type blockbuster and it just wouldn’t be enough to set it apart from anything.
The first person can be annoying at points but when it grabs you it holds you, your empathy is more intense for the characters and for danger they face.
This became a flick I was thinking about the next day which is sign of a good movie.
6.5/10
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