Is it come kind of rite of passage for big scary monsters to come to New York? If they don’t come to New York, would they be teased back in monsterland? Anyway, As you all know Cloverfield is about yet another big scary monster come to destroy New York. Overall I was entertained. I didn’t get motion sickness by the shaky film and what’s on screen doesn’t look too low-budgeted. I have my shares of complain about this movie though, here are a few:

1) Some of the imagery at the beginning of the film was kinda disturbing to me because of the fact that how much those scenes resemble 9/11. I don’t know if it’s intentional or not, maybe for the rest of the America who witnessed that day on TV might not feel much after all these times, but for the New Yorker who witnessed the event, who remembers the smell in the air that day, who still remember the horrible feeling inside your gut when you were staring at the smoke that covered up the entire island of Manhattan, who still remember how worry you were about about everyone that you know might be in danger – scenes like thick dust and smoke rushing down the street overtaking people in its path in downtown, scared people covered in dust walking across Brooklyn Bridge to escape and looking back at the destruction behind them could be too much to stomach.

2) To a person who really know the city well, there are scenes that make you go “what?” If there’s some other shows or movies when actions were jumping from various locations within seconds as if they were close together, you can ignore it because maybe there’s time lapse in the scenes, but for a movie who is suppose to be a real-time video recording – there is no time lapse and therefore no excuse how people can run from Spring Street subway station through the tunnel and within minutes get to the 59th Street station. That’s just not possible!!! Other “impossible” scenes included running from Columbus Circle to where the background clearly indicate Pershing Square and the elevated Park Ave south of Grand Central within minutes; the glass door basement connection between 59th Street station and Bloomingdale’s – that connection was closed for renovations for the longest time! Scenes like these really take the realism out of the movie.

3) The most ridiculous mistake they made in the movie is the gadget side of things, which you all know a geek like me would catch – first of all how long-lasting and sturdy is that handheld camera?? What’s the brand? cos I want one! It can withstand blast and bombs and dropping many times! Secondly, and this is a big one – the beginning of the movie said the footage was retrieved from a SD memory card from a handheld camera. Have they use a digital camcorder before at all? They don’t have tapes anymore! they will never ever “tape” over footage!!! so the previous footage in Coney Island filmed a month ago before the incident would not show up before, after, and in-between the “new” footage!!! The “new” footage would simply be saved in a separate file!!!!

4) This is actually a praise – the only face that i recognized in the movie was Lizzy Caplan, who played the unfortunate character of Marlena. I remember her from the short-lived sitcom The Class last year. She’s funny and sarcastic, the way how she ignore the annoying “camera” guy in the party and the things that she said back to him in the tunnel just cracks me up! I sympathize with her character the most, and it’s too bad that her death was probably the worst of them all. I hope she can land more roles after this movie~~

Anyway, a decent popcorn movie with no depth and no meaning, you’ll be entertained but don’t look for more.

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4. The Sign of doom
5. Staircase to nowhere

Tagged: Cloverfield · Movies · New York