01.17.08

WARNING: This post contains small dosage of spoiler to the movie Cloverfield. Best viewed using Opera browser.

As I was pacing out from Hall 2 with hands snuck into my pockets, I was in fact trembling. The cinema was really cold, since it was barely 5 or 6 persons including myself according to my faithful memory trying to make sense of where the story was heading during the first 10 to 15 minutes. Or maybe because I just got jolted by unknown but high amount of suspense, disbelief, fear - I was terrified.

What felt like moments before the credits started rolling was running endlessly, scaling tall heaps of rubbles, got bathed by dust and risked of being squashed to death by chunks of debris, got attack by spider-like creatures while trying to avoid crossing the path of the gray, collosal creature of unknown origin performing mass destruction on New York and Manhattan, and of course, trying to keep the video camera alive and running well despite the hindrance it brought to this survival race.

Overall, the movie - in my opinion as a self-acclaimed film critic - managed to score a 7.5 out of 10. It's totally compelling, however it might not suit most people who are especially used to the conventional method of story telling with narrations and dialogues. One might find it closely related to the earlier 1999 horror-documentary The Blair Witch Project where the story is being untangled through the lens of video camera and the limited perspectives of the people captured by it rather than the general overseeing narration of situation and people involved in most other stories. Truthfully, for the first 10 minutes, I was being brought on a rollercoaster ride of motion sickness due to the uncertainty of video camera. However, this method proves to be really successful in conveying the story especially when it is done the 'ordinary people' way as proven in Cloverfield where it captures the emotions, fear, eye-witness experience and the gripping, unpredictable suspense efficiently in such panic-and-run situation that puts audience into the shoes of those people, particularly through the eyes of the one recording the whole event.

The story begins with a group of people in a farewell party right before a series of strong but short tremors hit Manhattan. The next thing they know is that huge explosions have taken place and the head of Miss Liberty somehow ended on the road near them after being flung easily like a baseball. Obviously, it is something huge with limbs that can only carry out that feat. But still, we are not sure of what it is and where it is from then until to towards the middle of the story. Though it's kept secretive at first, but the plot revelation is good to elevate the suspense and provoke the interest of the ones watching, and everything including the monster's appearance seems to be at the right time and purpose.

Right even before the release of Transformers last year, teaser trailers of Cloverfield had been released in cinemas all over America to build the anticipation up. It was short and without title, but only mentioned JJ Abrams as the producer of the movie from the Lost fame. The trailers only depicted that Manhattan suffered from destruction but not knowingly what was that, and it was observable that the degree of damage and the flying head of the Statue could not be due to terrorism or something of today's arsenal. Funny it sounds, cinema-goers at first mistook it as the teaser trailers for Transformers itself. Unconfirmed speculations made by the public include alien invasion, monster ala Godzilla style, and the less convincing one - terrorism. Some went as far to conclude that it's a Cthulhu based on a book by H.P. Lovecraft. In an unaccredited source, it is confirmed by JJ Abrams himself that the humongous alien is - in fact - an alien.

Extra measurements were carefully taken by the producers to ensure that no leak could reach the public until today in Malaysia and certain parts of South East Asia. Our not so-near-neighbour, America will only get to watch it a day later than us. I have to admit and be amazed despite the massive shoots of scenes all over the crowded Manhattan and the huge amount of people were involved, there was no information that was leaked to the public until the movie being reeled in cinemas globalwide. Now that's what I called a brillliant marketing strategy and it won huge response there - but it is not so heavily promoted in Asia. That explains the reason behind the scarcity of audience in the hall today although today's the premier.

For that 90 minutes; I felt like being transported to Manhattan, witnessed the monster with my own eyes, running away from disasters all the time, being manipulated by the uncertain but strickening fear, covered with ash and dust and lost all hopes within the rubble of Manhattan. I might have considered giving it a 8.5 to 9 rating over 10, but the video camera motion-sickness - damn.