CLOVERFIELD: the review. [SUPER SPOILERS + IMAGE]
Okay, so I’ve slacked with this, (read: put off); and hell, one might even say I flat out “didn’t write” the dang thing, but alas - here goes the awaited . . .
This documentary flick rocked me in all the ways a human being should and could be. It was flat out amazing. Revolutionary. Invigorating. Downright terrifying. In all meaning and sense of the word truth, I have never, and will never see something like this again. Not because I don’t want to, but because any movie to follow suit would be nothing more than a repeat - which would end up as nothing more than a snooze-fest when thoughts really come down to it.
Moving along … the first half hour or so was, well let’s be honest, just “alright.” Now, don’t misunderstand me, I recognize the industry’s need to characterize their players and intertwine their destines and fates so the movie makes sense. I get that just like the rest of you, however, was there really a need to do it for, say, ten minutes longer than was necessary? Ahh well, I suppose it was all well worth it in hindsight [having viewed the movie 2x now]. At least we had the chance to see the “Rob loves Beth but Beth is pissed” stage, and that’s …good. Seriously.
So… these few “party people” suddenly hear this loud, disruptive noise coming from afar, and what do they do? They run to the roof. Hmm… smartest idea? Perhaps not, but who am I to judge a panicked person’s curiosity. Now we’re standing on the top of an old New York City apartment building and wondering what the hell is causing such chaos. [When I say "we're wondering..." I'm referring to you and I, us, we, we are... because if you're anything like myself, you were there while early stages of destruction were taking place.] Then it happens: the big explosion. What will it do to us?! Where does it come from!? What IS that thing?!? The one most undeniable affect immediately shines through: it changes everything. For everyone, as in, everyone in the world [mainly NYC]. Why? you ask. Oh my kiddies, put.it.together! Huge monster. Little people.
Ahem.
Then fire balls start to rain freely through the night sky, and a certain “nasty brown substance” makes an instant threat of crash landing in your boxers. Embarrassing, I know, but remember, we’re only human. Alas, I digress. SO, the main characters are on the roof, and Hud [Rob's best buddy] is filming every second, of which I totally approve of as it allows all us nervous, knee-knocking suckers viewing the show to…rattle some more denim.
At this point of the movie, the audience is experiencing utter captivation and salivating for more with each passing scene, myself included [duh]. The heartbeats begin a faster metronome, the scenes, now a blurred image of what reversed perceptions resemble, and your caught in fear, gripping the handle [or leg of the innocence next to you] as if it was your lifeline. Then we see the streets: crazy, erratic movement litters about before us and the first shred of evidence that there is life “out there” comes in the form of Lady Liberty’s head soaring through the air, which has now taken up permanent residence in the middle of a Manhattan street [scaring the tourists...ha].
The characters, Rob, Hud, Marlena and Lily are now seen moving slow (state of shock, no doubt) in the midst of the birthing terror when it finally happens: we see it. Through the eyes of one Hud, the camera captures “Cloverfield” as he eviscerates one towering structure after another, making its way towards us [pssha...'twas inevitable] with a vengeance. Here’s where the reality of human fright takes precedence: the store shot. While those few friends were hidden deep against the backside of rinky-dink convenience store, it still shocks me how real the absolute terror felt throughout that segment. It was as if the end of the world was walking directly towards you via the devils grin, a demonic “welcome to hell” moment. Nuts! *shakes the fear off*
Meanwhile, Marlena was left outside the little shop and witnessed “what it looked like” and “what it did to people” [ate them] as it roamed freely in NYC on its maiden voyage. { Hoy crap was I reeling at this point! } So…Rob, Lily and Hud meet her outside while the dust and debris [say it in your best Bill Paxton voice!] and notice the state of disbelief riddling her pale face. How Marlena survived what seemed an imminent death strike, is still a mystery to me, but that’s the golden nugget of what cinematic adventures should always strive for.
Wait a second! “Beth?!”
Rob’s best friend-turned-lover Beth, at some point made way to her home located in Midtown, and the panic sets in. Is she alive? Will cell phones still work for him to call her? Should he go for her? { Oh, I neglected to mention Rob’s brother [Lily's boyfriend] because well, he’s unimportant to the movie on so many levels, and that’s where I’ll leave it. Kthxbye. } Still with me? All speeding ahead for a moment, we’re going to jump to Marlena’s unfortunate death, the result of the creepy parasite attack in the subway. Oh, these nameless critters literally fell off the Cloverfield monster. No, seriously - I’m being “for real.”It was…organic the way it shed them.
Which brings me now to the subway scene: P o w e r f u l. Incredible how the emotions were spun with such an array of heartbreak and worry here. Rob having to call his mother to deliver the worst news imaginable; Marlena, alone and left to amuse Hud’s school girl crush; Hud, his eye fused to the camera for fear of reality setting in if he lowered it, if only for a moment. This is the beginning of your relation to them that slams the terror home; the bombs solidifying that fact as the Army attempts to “fight it off” directly above their ignorant heads.
In culminating the events on the train trek they had taken: Rob, Lily, Hud and Marlena were forced into darkness [psst... the subway is underground] and made to walk the tracks with only the camera’s light to guide the way. It’s here Rob schools Hud on “night vision” and then we see those sick little atrocities of foreign nature: The Parasites. Creeping and crawling on the tunnel’s ceiling, making their way stealthy over to the humans in hopes of infecting them with a gestational virus [for the sake of argument, that’s what I shall name the infection]. Marlena protects Rob from certain death, and boom, she’s bitten.
{ A note of observation for a moment = People often have tendencies to band as one in times of despair and loss, whether it be the simplest situation or worst case scenario, and this movie was no less the claim. } The main characters barely knew one another [save Lily and Rob] but went through hell as nothing more [or less] than people just trying to make it. Make it where? I suppose anywhere would be the tried and true answer, comparing their lives to our own, but for the sake of this review, I go onward again, out of the subway and into the Army’s quickly-fashioned camp.
Poor, poor Marlena. It’s here the parasitic attack that resulted from the subway stroll is revealed as a new fundamental element in the film. She becomes weak, pale and dizzy. Symptoms soon take a nose dive to no man’s land, and we hear a nurse scream “BITE!” and we know it’s all over for the girl that sacrificed her all. For Hud. She is taken away by Army medics dressed in HAZ-MAT suits, and though the curtain shields the horrible event, a silhouette never lies: Marlena Diamond literally explodes.
:-\ I rather enjoyed that character.
Rob, Hud, Lily and a slew of soldiers all run out of potential harm’s way, and fight back the “Oh My God’s” for the umpteenth time while catching their breath; the truth of Marlena’s sad end never divulged. It’s here the Army gives orders of a last helicopter flight and its departure from the city, as well as the best route to get to Beth’s destroyed apartment building. Yes, the United States Army let escape three young-uns attempting a rescue of epic proportions; a chance to do the right thing.
However. In DOING the right thing, we round a street corner to face Beth’s once beautiful home that is now imprisoning her frail and bleeding body, and immediately take sight that it’s one AC unit short of becoming a pile of rubble. We hear Hud’s sarcastic humor flowing in and out of scared-shitless scenes as they climb 59 stories of one structure - in order to hop onto the lop-sided roof of Beth’s building that is leaning against theirs ever so gently for support.
{ Umm. I’d vomit in this scene, and I’m big enough to admit that. }
They make it safely to her FEMA-needed apartment and rescue her from the eternal grips of rebar and slowly, the once three, now four again crowd, descends the healthy towers staircase. By the looks of things all seemed to have a smooth race to the bottom [save for another parasite encounter] and once free from the shaky memories, they begin a new race: “0600.” When the last helicopter leaves, and knowing the time and being together finally makes hope seem plausible.
P.L.A.U.S.I.B.L.E.
Lily gets shoved, stowed and pushed into a chopper of her own, while the remaining three are left to scream silent “so longs” to her as their own Army usher gives them the duplicated treatment. Freedom at last?
Cloverfield: Huge. Green. Amphibian perhaps? Inverted elbows. Wickedly large teeth. Nasty temper. Scary. As. Balls. And it’s here we are gifted a [up close] view of this terror from the home field. Whoamigosh… Onward to the end of a long, sad tale: Lily, she *may* have survived, for that I am unsure of. Rob, Beth and Hud crash land in a field on account of Mister Clover “jaws”-ing their helicopter out of the sky during that unfortunate early morning day. Miraculously, all three survived, no matter how badly bruised, slightly twisted and completely confused the trio seemed, they were also very alive nonetheless; well… for the time being.
Poor, Poor Hud. It’s one of the final scenes of this movie, and “riveting” will do absolutely no justice here. My heart has never pounded as vicious beneath my breast bone than it had that day (both viewings) and my breath had never been caught so deeply within my lungs. Hud falls down. Camera tilts up. Cloverfield is staring directly into your eyes. What do you do? What do we hear? How do you feel? Hud knew his death was the highest probability, if ever there was one that day, yet instead of running, or attempting the impossible escape, he remained. Lens, eyes and mind focused so that others may see and more importantly, feel as he did just before his untimely end.
It’s here Hud is eaten and distastefully tossed about within the monster’s mouth, and in the final sequence of that shot, the camera - along with Hud’s head - falls back to Earth, and Cloverfield is once again out of immediate sight. Beth and Rob are all that’s left and hearing retrieving the electronic journal of choice, they make their way to what will be their final resting place. Centered underneath what was once a quaint little bridge hidden in Central Park, the two settle for mere moments before, collecting memories and fighting back the pain of loss and physical strain, and it’s here we witness the finality of human life.
I can only guess, imagine or wonder as to what it would take to keep the will inside me going long enough to reach this point, and yet once arrived, I don’t know if I could speak my full name. But there we were. Beneath the red brick, falling stone and ash surrounding, knowing this was it, as did Beth and Rob. They said their names, their simple questions of “why” and statements polished with tiny specs of hope, “we’re going to wait it out,” but the sirens sound off, and it’s finally over.
-
What an amazing journey. I do apologize if this was “over the top” or “unnecessary,” but it’s how I wanted to share with you, how I felt, and continue to feel when discussing this film. It’s was fascinating from a enthusiast’s view point, and exhilarating from a “end of the world” type story for this fan girl.
In short, the J.J. Abrams sold it to me something awful and I do so hope this flick comes to DVD tomorrow soon.
Thoughts?
One Response to “And finally…”
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February 5th, 2008 at 5:35 am
You should become the first “Cinematic Adventure Critic”. Sure, there are plenty of movie critics and buffs out in this world, but none of them possess the kind of snark and jabby aside that were scattered perfectly throughout this essay. Loved it. I give your review a 10/10.