Love in the Time of Monsters

I'm a sucker for a well-told story. Cloverfield is just such a story. Since its release, or even long before its release I suppose, it has come under fire. One of the most heard quotes from people is: “I've heard the camera makes you sick” which is usually followed by “that's why I'm not going to see it.”

What a joke. People actually do this though. Which saddens me. This is a great love story. That's exactly what it is and nothing more.

The monster is not the focal point of the story so why should we be given all sorts of explanations about its origin and its nature? It looks like a rat. It looks like a lizard. It looks like a monster from that game Rampage.

Who really cares?

The focus of the movie is love. The movie is centred on two characters, a boy and a girl. There is great tragedy in this story and as cliché as it may get at points the love and its relationship are very real to us.

The tragedy is that two people who love each other will not admit it. This is a tragedy of the commons for our time. The easiest way to take people's minds off the love story is to throw a monster into the equation. In fact, throw a monster into the equation who shows up and pimp smacks Lady Liberty for no good god-damned reason. That will really take your attention away from the idea of love.

Our base human emotions drive this movie to its climax and most won't even notice this as we are too distracted by the monster and the tiny animals that fall off it (which are quite freaky looking).

The movie is interlaced with scenes of a day in a theme park, scenes that weren't recorded over because the camera was momentarily turned off. The day just happens to be a day from when the characters were together and were in love.

Now these characters aren't together but are in love. Oh drama. This is still a beautiful narrative technique. Its subtle, perhaps annoying, a little bit cheesy, but it gets the job done. And a job well done the movie turns out to be.

The final moments of this love story are captured on film for us and as Shakespearean love stories go, everyone dies. We should feel a sense of satisfaction at the end though, by this time in the viewing experience we should understand that the words “I love you” have never had so much meaning before.

The alien is ugly. The story is beautiful. But don't see it if you're just going to complain. Oh, I almost forgot, do enjoy the line “I'm so scared right now”, where have we heard that before?