DecoyMusic.com

During my perusal of articles relating to Cloverfield, the latest big-budget, action-packed extravaganza from J.J. Abrams and associates, I noticed a common filmmaking phrase, “suspension of disbelief,” thrown around more than once. Now I know why; the talented individuals behind Cloverfield have tried their damndest to create an experience that minimizes skepticism – viewers realized centuries ago, after all, that the train won’t ride off the screen and crush them – but most of these efforts, even the successful ones, do more to alienate us from their film than encourage us to embrace it.

As many of you probably already know, Cloverfield’s narrative is told from the point of view of a digital camcorder held by some dude named Hud (as in, a first-person shooter’s heads-up display?). This hapless cinematographer is instructed to document a going away party thrown for the film’s protagonist, Rob, which unfortunately coincides with all hell breaking loose as someone or something starts laying the smack down on Manhattan. This intriguing perspective choice, though not wholly original, provides a refreshing and realistic groundwork for the plot that serves it well … all the way through the opening titles.

Once the actual storyline begins, however, things take a turn for the implausible as regrettable stylistic choices hinder Cloverfield’s cinéma-vérité approach. Designing a film around these concepts requires an audience willing to view the work as a sort of documentary and the camera as a storytelling relic from the fictional diegesis. But when this inexpensive handy-cam produces audiovisual excellence worthy of professional recording equipment, and every supposedly authentic scene is lit to perfection, and said camera consistently activates and focuses on only those events and conversations that progress the plot, we can’t help but notice glaring gaps in this so-called realism.

“Contrivances in action movies are nothing new,” you say, “how are the special effects?” Oh, they’re spectacular. Each digitally enhanced frame is extraordinarily polished, just like the rest of the film, but in the case of CGI this glossiness isn’t detrimental. Stuff blows up, and it blows up real nice, which makes Cloverfield’s exhilarating action sequences its strongest asset. Sadly, the main object being animated – its much speculated-over antagonist – does not quite live up to the hype. The “big reveal” is an anticlimax that creates a surplus of new questions rather than answering those originally proposed by a six month old theatrical trailer.

Cloverfield features breathtaking moments nonetheless, such as the quiet desperation of a strobe-lit kiss, possibly the couple’s last, or a white horse ambling down a deserted street with driverless carriage in tow. Even a romantic subplot implemented via in-camera parallel editing could have broken hearts with more development. These images may stay with you, but their sum is not a cohesive film; it’s a sloppy thrill-ride that sacrifices core thematic elements for either lazy adherence to filmic conventions or shameful pandering to moviegoers desiring a quick and flashy showcase of escapism. Those aforementioned glimpses of humanity provide a startlingly beautiful contrast, but in the end served only to highlight my disappointment.

-Scott Miller