FILM: Cloverfield

DIRECTOR: Matt Reeves

YEAR: 2008

WATCHED ON: TV

DATE WATCHED: 12-Feb-2024

FIRST VIEWING: No

SPOILERS AHEAD: Yes

I remember when Cloverfield came out that it was quite a big deal. Off the top of my head, I can’t remember if it came out before Paranormal Activity (I could just search for that information on the internet but that isn’t my style. These are free flowing thoughts about films!), but it certainly came out after The Blair Witch Project, and way after Cannibal Holocaust. My point being that found film footage style movies weren’t anything new.. just maybe a little bit forgotten.

This was my first time watching it since I watched the DVD of it back in 2008 or 2009, and I think I realised why I’d never gone back to give it another watch.

Even when its sequels appeared (‘sequels’), I was never tempted to revisit it because honestly, it was a bit boring. Not poorly made or acted in by any means. I just never found myself engrossed in the film. Whether or not that’s because of the found footage style, maybe. It could be because it’s a bit of a numb story. They’re at a party in NYC when a giant monster appears, and then they have to get away. And they have to try to avoid danger. And its all filmed on their little camcorder so it shakes like mad.

They go from street to subway, to hospital, to street, to building, to outside to - MONSTER ! - helicopter. And it ends.

There was a sequel that had nothing to do with this film, and a sequel to that one that also had nothing to do with this film. Or the first sequel.

It doesn’t demand a viewing. If I remember correctly, a lot of the excitement when it came out was because J.J. Abrams (the producer) had involvement with this movie and Lost (the tv show), so it was rumoured that the monster came from the island in the show.

There are other better found footage movies out there, and there are other better monster movies out there.

Not necessarily a bad movie, by any means. But not a great movie.