January 18, 2008
New York Critics Swat Cloverfield
Say, did you hear anything about this movie that opens today, Cloverfield? No? Yeah, it’s kind of a [Spoiler Alert!] obscure art-house thing, all shot with a camcorder from the perspective of a few friends fleeing a massive monster smashing Manhattan. We attended a screening earlier in the week and deemed it top-shelf disaster porn; though the main characters are rather annoying and the apocalypse takes a little too long to blast off, “by the time that massive beast slouches toward lower Manhattan, bowling the head of the Lady Liberty with a nonchalance befitting the Bush administration, you’ll be almost as bloodthirsty as the monster.” And blood you’ll get, along with spectacular special effects and almost relentless suspense.
At the moment, Cloverfield is enjoying a 76% approval rating at the Rotten Tomatoes aggregate. Most of the web reviewers and the regional press are eating it up, while the big city sophisticates where the story takes place are recoiling. Not that her opinion matters much for Cloverfield at the box office, but the Times’s Manohla Dargis did not like it:
Like Cloverfield itself, this new monster is nothing more than a blunt instrument designed to smash and grab without Freudian complexity or political critique, despite the tacky allusions to Sept. 11… It works as a showcase for impressively realistic-looking special effects, a realism that fails to extend to the scurrying humans whose fates are meant to invoke pity and fear but instead inspire yawns and contempt. Rarely have I rooted for a monster with such enthusiasm.
Which we think is half the fun. The Daily News review tepidly agreed, calling it “fun in its morbidly campy way.” The New York Observer’s Sara Vilkomerson says “the movie feels like one of those out-of-control roller coasters where halfway through the ride, you reconsider the wisdom of getting on in the first place.” Which is funny, because we’re ready to go again. But Grady Hendrix at the Sun gets the last laugh:
It's big. Really, really big. So huge, in fact, that you can see it from practically any street corner in Manhattan. It consumes everything in its path. It induces panicked, frenzied behavior in adults. Even on a purely technical level it takes your breath away when you realize its scale, when you grasp how much time and money went into making it work, when you understand its complexity… It is the marketing campaign for Cloverfield, which finally reaches theaters on Friday.Take his wife, please. Hendrix also deserves credit for his description of the monster that fanboys have been so anxious to glimpse: “Like some tourist from the Midwest, once the creature stumbles into Manhattan and visits Central Park and the Empire State Building, there's nothing left for it to do but knock around aimlessly, getting in trouble and making a mess on the sidewalks.”
Don't fight the hype; just surrender. Let it happen. Join the Facebook fan page, grab some killer ring tones and wallpaper for your cell phone. Read our interview with director Matt Reeves, buy a T-shirt, and secure tickets in advance.
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I kinda enjoyed the silliness of "Day After Tomorrow" as well, with the NYC destruction. There is a funny part in that movie where they are looking at a map of the US that has a red line drawn through it, indicating where the "destruction" has occurred. In three or four shots of the map, the line is in totally different places. Awesome.
done.
Manhola Dargis never likes any action/mainstream movies. He/she/it shouldn't be reviewing them. He/she/it should stick to reviewing obscure indie political art-house foreign language subtitled movies that only he/she/it and 3 other critics will watch.
How much money is Gothamist getting to promote this shit? I'm so sick of this damn Cloverfield promotion. And telling people to "give into the hype " is just LAME. How desperate are you to get people to see this crap! I can't wait till this movie opens and I can stop seeing it's marketing efforts. It's just a stupid monster movie. Can we get back to real news?
The comparison to a midwest tourist is hilarious... It makes me picture the monster with a piece of straw hanging out of its mouth, a fanny pack, and a camera around its neck.
i agree, the marketing campaign has made me sick of the movie before it even came out. wow, another movie about new york getting destroyed (yawn)
Don't fight the hype; just surrender. Let it happen. Join the Facebook fan page, grab some killer ring tones and wallpaper for your cell phone. Read our interview with director Matt Reeves, buy a T-shirt, and secure tickets in advance.
Soft sell, guys. Soft sell. That way it seems more like a reliable, informed opinion than full-on whorin'.
I saw this movie when it was called Blair Witch Project. fucking Hate JJ ABRAMS!!!! All his shit is always about the adrenaline rush itself and not why people get the adrenaline rush. It's called Plot people. The Bourne Series suffers from this too. I need backstory and explanation. It's like if someone cutoff all the beginning of jurassic park and just left the parts where they are running from dinosaurs. JJ Abrams just films an interesting scenario and then leaves it to the viewer to decide and hopes people will call it mysterious and genius. It's not, It's lazy. We need exposition. I didn't pay money to use my imagination. I want it spelled out for me. leaving it open-ended was a copout at the ending of Sopranos too. these fucks! Great setup, great execution. No completion
I love New York, never plan to leave, but I never ever get tired of seeing it fake destroyed.
For what it's worth, Neil Rosen on NY1 gave it only one apple and panned it up and down. Some of the actors were on Opie and Anthony this morning and they were pretty dull.
Anything that gets compared to Blair Witch Project has got to be garbage. If I must see a movie about NYC's destruction I would rather watch I AM Legend. At least it got good reviews.
ugh, the last sentence of this post says it all. could you be any more transparent, gothamist? why even bother with the pretense (in previous posts) of being vaguely non-biased?
Ah yes the old midwesterner hillbilly reference--God forbid the midwesterner-turn New Yorker in your midst.
buy a t shirt? anyone who buys a cloverfield t shirt deserves a swift kick in the crotch. seriously, with the way they are forcing this movie down your throat, i assumed it had come out weeks ago.. and it only came out TODAY? christ i don't even care if it's good, i want it to go away, now.
I wonder what a Cloverfield ringtone is supposed to be like.
I wonder what a Cloverfield ringtone is supposed to be like.
i thought it was epic.
Forget monster spoilers - what the hell does the title mean?
*YAWN*
Go watch "There will be blood" instead.
I hate watching actors stare up at the sky and start screaming then running. Here is a partial list of such crappy movies:
godzilla
armageddon
asteroid
deep impact
twister
war of the worlds
jurassic park
independence day
ZOMG! CG MONSTER! RUN!
Hey Jamie, the answer to that is explained by Matt Reeves at the very end of the interview linked above. (Scroll way down to the bottom.)
It's a monster movie! With a monster! That breaks things we know! Seriously, I loved it.