TR Movie Review: Cloverfield

Most critics seem to like Cloverfield, and, as a watcher of many fine and godawful giant monster movies, I andTopless Robot definitely come out on the side of “For.” It’s genuinely entertaining to watch a giant monster movie entirely from the human/innocent bystander point of view, and at about 80 trim minutes, the Blair Witch-cam doesn’t get old (it also stays mysteriously steady enough for a few good monster scenes, so you aren’t cheated out of the promised giant monster carnage).

That said, it does have a few flaws; mostly, the five humans who “star” in the film are New York hipsters whose incredible sense of douchebaggery utterly negates their Darwinian sense of survival and send them into moronically dangerous situation after situation. The easiest solution to this is simply root for the monster to kill these self-absorbed jackasses, and if your brain can make the switch (and I promise it can, after watching their hipster drama party for the film’s first 20 minutes) makes Cloverfield mightily entertaining. Unfortunately, it still could use some more monster-ing. You never actually see the creature actually up and fully level a building in true Godzilla style (there are plenty scenes of post-destruction, however); plus, while the monster does eat people, you only kind of get to see one mastication, and that only partially. With so many delicious douchebags running around like mobile monster Lunchables, I really wanted more.

That said, go see it in the theater for sure?you’ll never need to see if again, or god forbid, own it on DVD. Also, anyone who would like the end of the movie spoiled, please hit the jump.

Monster 5, Douchebags 0