Cloverfield is a mixed breed of a film, its lineage derived from both the semi-creepy but overrated Blair Witch Project and the most beloved city-smashing monster of all time, God-zilla. The film opens in Blair Witch style with a title card infor-ming us that what we're about to see comes from the area in New York "formerly known as Central Park", now designated "Cloverfield". The footage--from a camcorder--begins to play. At first we are introduced to Rob(Michael Stahl-David) as he wakes his lover, Beth(Odette Yustman) early in the morning to lovingly tape her as she opens her eyes. The footage skips a bit, showing Rob and Beth on their way to Coney Island because she's never been, then to brief snippets of Rob with his brother Jason(Mike Vogel) and his fiancee Lily(Jessica Lucas) before finally settling on a party being finaliz-ed by Lily and Jason, along with Rob's best friend Hud(T.J. Miller). It turns out Rob has received a promotion and is relocating to Japan. This is a farewell party for him, and we soon learn that Hud is unknowingly taping over Rob's happy memories with Beth, whom it turns out was only a very good friend that slept with him on a spur of the moment, and things didn't work out.

     The party goes well at first, until Beth shows up with new boyfriend Travis(Ben Feldman). Unpleasant things are said and Beth leaves. While Rob, his brother and Hud discuss the situation, the building--the entire city, in fact--are briefly rocked by what appears to be an earthquake. It turns out something strange is happening in downtown, and everyone heads up to the roof for a better look. But when fireballs sud-denly shoot into the air from that direction and begin covering the city, the partygoers race for the relative safety of the streets. When several buildings collapse in close proximity, some get a glimpse at what caused it, and the unthinkable soon becomes terrifyingly apparent: an actual, giant monster is attacking the city.

     From then on, Cloverfield becomes both a survival film and rescue movie, while attempting to capture the action as if we're watching a documentary on events that have actually happened. At first Rob and his friends--brother Jason, Lily, Hud and Marlena(Lizzy Caplan), a young woman who was only invited to the party as Lily's guest--attempt to make it over the Brooklyn Bridge and out of the city. But when the creature destroys the bridge, killing one of the group in the process, they switch to plan B: rescue Beth, who is trapped in her apartment in midtown.

     To my surprise, the coolest part of the movie was actually the use of the camcorder's point of view, which is utilized in a fairly effective manner to put the viewer into the immediate center of the action. It works far better than expected, but the fact that Hud is always filming no matter the situation(the ex-cuse used is that Hud wants to document everything, so people will know what happened. Apparently no one told Hud about this brand new invention called CNN) detracts from that selfsame reality which director Matt Reeves(The Pallbearer) is trying so hard to thrust us into. There are quite a few situa-tions within the film that, if they were truly happening in the real world, no one would continue filming. They'd be too busy running for their lives or screaming their heads off.

     Cloverfield is most effective when it focuses on the fight for survival rather than the characters, because there certainly isn't much to them. We're never told what it is that Rob does for a living, or what he's supposed to be vice-president of when he gets to Japan. We barely know anything about Lily other than she's really cute and feisty, or Hud, other than he's not the brightest bulb in the box. Marlena is present only to give Hud someone to drool over(he's always fancied her but never had the guts to talk to her) and make awkward con-versation with, and as far as the plan to rescue Beth goes, not one person tries hard enough to convince Rob against going into the heart of the city--where the creature is headed

--to create any true tension. Hud threatens to tackle Rob, but being the lovable, lunk-headed friend that he is, goes along with the plan like everyone else. Just watching this part of the film, I wanted to yell to the characters, "F*** Beth, she's a b**** for bringing another dude to the party, get outta town!"

     At least, I believe that would have happened to a real group of people in the real world...but as producer, Abrams does have the final say over writer Drew Goddard's(Lost, Alias) script and Reeves' direction, and the both of them owe him their careers, after all. And Abrams doesn't deal in reality --he tends to deal with characters who make dumb mistakes for no reason other than such decisions will get them into the next big threat from which they must escape.

     The next big threat(which I have to admit, is very inspired) is that the creature has smaller beings which drop from its skin and instantly attack any living being they encounter. During a walk through the subway tunnels in an attempt to safely get to Beth's place, Rob and his friends run into the little parasitic things, and this is definitely one of the scarier moments in the film. It's an excellent segment which is over way too quick, but again the "realism" of the situation is called into question when Marlena receives wounds that appear far too deep and excruciating, but to which she barely reacts at all, even when cleaning them with bottled water.

     The best thing about Cloverfield--aside from the amazing visual that accompanies the group's eventual arrival at Beth's place--is the creature itself. A true leviathan, it is at once indisputably menacing and quite believable on a biological level. It looks like something that could have risen from the ocean on this Earth and wandered onto our shores. Also, one of the best--yet most frustrating--things about this creature is that we are never given an explanation as to what it is. There are no scenes of any eggheaded Reed Richards-type scien-tist smoking a pipe trying to figure out whether it's from this world or another(although there is a brief shot of a dead parasite being wheeled about in a case by a soldier inside a temporary military headquarters). No scenes of any military general going "Huzzah! This is how we beat this thing!" What we do receive is a brief cameo by reliable character actor Chris Mulkey(Cold Case and unfortunately Dragon Wars) as a lieutenant-colonel giving his men orders to mobilize, right after he delivers some dire news about the impending fate of New York to Rob and his surviving friends. For better or worse, no matter whether we're following Rob and pals around town or the military attempting to mobilize, Cloverfield is undoubtedly a working man's movie.

     Cloverfield is also an odd movie, unevenly constructed in that some of its necessary conceits are the same things which drag it down. Only one time in the film does anyone tell Hud to stop filming. The revealing of the creature is awesome but I still haven't decided whether or not I saw too little of it or just the right amount. The acting is uneven as well, with the best performances delivered by Lucas as Lily and Miller as Hud, while Stahl-David as Rob is just too weak an actor to follow around for a film, even one as short as this(Cloverfield runs only a surprising 72 minutes, not counting its end cred-its). At one point, a character is found in a situation in which they should have been dead--no two ways about it--and when it's discovered this person is indeed alive, it sent a wave of groans through my screening audience. There are also moments when certain characters(including some in the military) behave in ways that are completely contradictory to how said characters would behave in reality, no matter what the unreality of the situation might be.

     Still, even with all that going against it, Cloverfield makes for one hell of a smash-'em-up monster flick and oddly enough, a superior date movie. There are genuine shocks and chills that will make even the most seasoned and jaded horror veteran jump, and overall the piece entire holds toge-ther well.

 
     And while the humans in it might not be the type you'd like to see make it out alive, the monster is worth the price of admission.