I just got finished watching Cloverfield . I was told not to watch it that it had made some people sick on the big screen. I thought it was really interesting. If you haven’t seen or heard of it before, it is about a day in life of someone and then a monster attacks Manhattan, and they continue to document through the disaster and tragedy.
I think that this movie was meant to be a representation of a terrorist attack, but that they did not want to open that wound again, so they used something fictitious to drive home the point without elevating the fear level in people. This created a little less fear from the movie while still representing the fear and chaos that unpredictable situations like the terrorist attacks of 9/11 create.
In the opening scenes of the movie, they document two of the main characters Rob and Beth and their love affair. Then they move to a month later, where they are planning a going away party for Rob as he has gotten a promotion and is heading to Japan. They film the party and the other characters using Rob’s friend Hud as the camera man. He is documenting everyone’s well wishes for Rob on his trip, when they uncover the fact that Rob and Beth had slept together about a month earlier. Anyway, when Beth shows up at the party with another guy, Rob and Beth have words and Beth leaves angry. Trying to comfort their brother and friend, Jason and Hud are trying to talk to Rob about it when the building shakes and powers out for a minute. This moment is very startling as they are just talking and then boom terror sets in. They go on the roof to see what is going on, and observe things flying and explosions in the city and the group of party goers flees the building. The whole time being filmed by Hud as documented by the video camera he is carrying.
As time goes on the terror and chaos ensue, as they still do not know what is going on in the city and the group tries to cross the Brooklyn Bridge. As they are crossing the monsters tail swings across and kills Jason and breaks the bridge. The group of 4, now make it off the bridge and in the mean time, Rob gets a call from Beth saying she needs help and that she is trapped and bleeding. The group decides to go back into the city to try and save Beth. When they do, they run into these smaller spider like monsters in the subway tunnels and one of the girls get bitten by a creature. As they try to get out of the tunnels and away from these creatures, the 4 weary travelers come across the military and their make shift hospital, and when they know that the one girl has been bitten they drag her into a tent and kill her. Very shaken, the now group of 3 continue into the city and find Beth and rescue her from her apartment. They then try to get out of the city by helicopter. The first girl gets on the first helicopter and is saved. The rest get on the second helicopter, which spins out of control and then crashes, but all 3 of them are still alive. Then as they are trying to get to safety, Hud the camera man gets attacked by the monster and dies. Then the two that are left are Beth and Rob and they take Hud’s camera and hide in the park under a bridge. The military bombing of the city and monster begin, and then they are buried under rocks and die or so we think. The very last scene is what was left on the tape before and flashes to Beth and Rob having fun together at Coney Island a month earlier.
I really enjoyed this movie, although perhaps not the most realistic of story lines, the plight of the humans to survive and take care of each other above all else seemed to be accurately portrayed by this movie. I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys lots of action and suspense.