Cloverfield

<rant>

If you know me then you will know I love watching movies, all sorts of movies, I am not a movie snob.

If you know me then you will also know what I hate about most movies is that they don’t follow their own internal logic. 

When we go to the cinema or stick on a dvd or whatever we are essentially holding back our disbelief and buying into the fantasy that the flickering images before our eyes is representing.  Immersing ourselves in totally fantastic worlds.

So anyway, Cloverfield, I loved it.  It’s a great movie, shot from the Point of View of a camcorder, when an unknown giant monster attacks New York.  Excellent.  The idea even stands up from a film theory perspective…  For example, when the original Godzilla movies came out, Godzilla the giant monster attacking Tokyo was a metaphor for the American influence post World War 2.  Cloverfield is about the horror and confusion and chaos that surrounds a group of friends when NewYork is attacked by (to them) an unknown monster… Hmm can I think of any parallels in real life, could the monster be a metaphor for anything, well of course yes.

So far so good.  There were some good special effects, the monster was weird enough etc.

But then the internal logic falls apart, or at least isn’t followed.

At a crucial point in the story (STOP now if you haven’t watched the movie and want to!!!) one of our heroes walks into an electronics store that is being looted and finds a replacement battery for his mobile (as his has run down) so that he can call the love of his life.  Fine.  He puts the battery in and phones.

WTF!

I know that people from New York are always supposed to be in a hurry (the media tells me this is true) but really.  The movie-makers want me to believe that the batteries on shelves come pre-charged!!!

PLEASE!  And if they do come charged why not pocket a handful of camcorder batteries as well.

The camcorder being used for night-vision in horror has been done before, and arguably a lot better in other movies, see Blair Witch and perhaps even better in Descent.

</rant>