Eve of Destruction
An earth-shaking explosion. An otherworldly roar. The severed head of the Statue of Liberty hurtling through the streets of New York. Last summer, those quick, shaky images opened the trailer for a film identified only by its release date, 01-18-08, and jumpstarted the massive marketing campaign for what was to be named Cloverfield. Now, after months of fanboy anticipation stoked by a slew of red-herring Websites and mySpace pages, and rampant speculation (Is it really a monster movie? What does Slusho have to do with it?) over what exactly creator / producer J.J. Abrams’ film is about, 01-18-08 is finally here.
So…does it live up to the hype? In a word — albeit one uttered rather queasily — yes. The apocalyptic destruction of Manhattan starts roughly 20 minutes into the 85-minute film, and it doesn’t let up. One huge and ugly mofo of a monster is on a rampage, and all the action is seen from the point-of-view of one man’s digital video camera as he and his friends try to escape the city. The seams that typically show in major F/X films are rendered invisible by the grainy, you-are-there, handheld camerawork. This chaos looks disturbingly real.
For what could have been a huge letdown, Cloverfield is a fresh, loud and unsettling update of a genre that got tired a long time ago. Now that is truly something for the fanboys to get worked up about.
Cloverfield opens today from Paramount Pictures.
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