I had to skip our Thursday bowling session for the press screening of
Cloverfield. (Sorry guys, I felt bad about it, but I figured there's always next week.)
Thanks to Paolo, Meann and the people from UIP. ^_^
I'm not a writer nor a film critic, but what the hey. Endure, my friends.
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Cloverfield
Directed by Matt Reeves
Produced by J. J. Abrams; Bryan Burk
Written by Drew Goddard[
Warning: Slightly spoilery, but then again, it's experiencing the movie that matters really.]
It starts simply: a recorded memoir of a good weekend plays, with time and date stamps on the lower part of the screen. A guy (Rob Hawkins) mans the camera, and tries to record what turns out to be a good weekend with someone he really likes.
As soon as it gets interesting, the scene cuts to a send-off party that was taped over the original video. Several testimonials and revelations after, an explosion goes off somewhere in lower Manhattan, and Hud, the guy tasked to shoot the send-off video, keeps the camera on because he thinks people will want to know what is going on. This is where the real action begins.
The rest of the film is an amateur reportage of a bunch of young adults trying to run away from an unknown creature wreaking havoc and destruction in New York. There are no answers to the what, how and the why. The film just lets us experience the horror, the shock and the fear of the unknown vicariously, and effectively, too.
The hand-held shots pretty much make us believe that everything is, indeed, really happening. The visual effects and the set-ups are awesome. I've been oblivious to all the viral marketing that was going on since early 2007 (the 01-18-08 site, individual myspace pages/blogs for some of the main characters, the Slusho and Tagruato websites, etc.), but I can say that the first twenty minutes of the film pretty much gives us a basic idea of what the main characters are like. In this film back stories are not as significant as I thought they would be.
The downside to this realism, however, is the vertigo-inducing unstable camera shots, plus sudden, unexpected flashes of bright light. I keep my eyes shut during certain running scenes just so I don't give up the popcorn and the satay I just had. (The comparison to
The Blair Witch Project's nausea factor doesn't even begin to describe the intensity of what I had to go through with
Cloverfield. Gigi, who was sitting beside me, had to get up from her seat and step out of the cinema twice.) This movie is not for the faint of heart, epileptic, astigmatic and the vertigo-prone.
Despite that, it is still worth watching -- even only once -- on the big screen. I don't think I have had my feet literally up in the air kicking from suspense in the cinema in a long time. And we get to see the monster, too.
(I think I should mention that I love the final scene and dialogue. It makes a pretty good impression. Hehehe.)
And so my rating goes:
Visuals: * * * * * (5 stars)
Barf Factor: * * * * * (5 stars)
-- Although if it's possible to go over 5, I will give it a 10. If you're the type who would throw up from watching a movie like this, maybe you should wait for the DVD.
Over-all rating: * * * * ½ (4.5 stars)
-- I would have given a full five if I wasn't so woozy from watching all the hand-held shooting.
Date Factor: (As in, would I watch this movie on a date?)
Only if I like my date. Hahaha. There will be clinging involved. ;-Þ
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Post-script:
Oh, btw, right after the press screening, Tobie, Gigi, Nina, Beej and I went to Fandom Café and did a (somewhat silly but fun) video review over at
ustream.tv (search for "Fandom Live!"). Watch at your own risk. Heheh.
