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I normally reserve my final judgment on movies until the end of the review, but I’m just going to state right now that Cloverfield is definitely worth the trip to the store. The reason I’m telling you this up front is so you know to pop a couple Advil right before you head to the Blockbuster. By the time you get to the store, rent the movie, and return home, the meds should be starting to kick in and you’ll be ready to enjoy the movie. I really liked the movie, but it made my brain hurt in the same way that trying to read a book with small print while riding in a car on a bumpy highway does. Much like the book in the car, the end result may be worth it, but you have to go in knowing that you are going to commit 100% of your attention for the entire length of the film.

The reason I say this is that Cloverfield is going to, from a visual standpoint, seem like what the Godzilla remake would have looked like it if it had swapped cinematographers with The Blair Witch Project. The film is shown through the point of view of the handheld camera of one amateur, who just happens to be documenting his best friends going away party when the monster strikes. Since this lone tape is supposed to be the only surviving footage of the attack, we get no other angles but those which Hud, our cameraman, provides us with. This provides an interesting level of realism by putting the audience right into the first person perspective of the characters. We see only what the characters come across and only learn what they are able to learn about the situation, amidst the chaos. We are given no reason for the attack, no background on the monster, and no updates on what is going on when the monster isn’t on screen.

Cloverfield is a truly unique interpretation of the classic monster movie genre. While the creature is certainly a major part of the film, it doesn’t ever really become a character like Godzilla or King Kong do. A good way to describe the monster’s role is to think of it like a storm, or whatever else is your natural disaster of choice. The monster’s attack is, at its core, just another way to throw characters into a chaotic situation. That doesn’t make this any less successful of a film, though. The film sets out to show how everyday, human characters react to a totally unforeseeable crisis. I appreciate this goal because the creature and destruction special effects are good enough that writer Drew Goddard could have taken the easy way out (by letting the characters turn into faceless clichés out to destroy the monster) and Cloverfield still would have made money.

While the monster is awesome, and the first hand visuals of Manhattan in the throws of a near-apocalyptic nightmare are striking (which may make those that are particularly emotionally affected by reminders of 9/11 feel uneasy), Cloverfield certainly does have some flaws. While Goddard avoided using monster movie clichés for his characters, the plot amongst the characters is fairly predictable and their actions don’t always feel totally authentic. For one, Rob, the guy for whom the going-away party is being thrown, displays this sort of “knight in shining armor” mentality toward Beth, his longtime dream girl who he has recently slept with, only to let the chance of a potential relationship pass because of his impending move. There is only a certain amount of heroism that I can reasonably believe. You escape a burning house, only to realize that your girlfriend is trapped on the roof and you’re going to go up and save her? Why not? You’re going to dive in a swimming pool to save your little brother before a loose power line has a chance to touch the water and kill him? I believe it. But, if you’re telling me that you’re going to walk to the opposite side of Manhattan to try and rescue a girl you’re not even in a relationship with when there’s about an 80% chance that she will already be dead by the time you get there and a giant creature is killing everyone and destroying the city, then back up a foot or so because your nose is growing and I don’t want you to poke my eye out. Also, the persistent comedic relief from our cameraman, Hud, frequently seems out of place as well. I understand the desire to lighten the mood, but a lot of his comments just didn’t seem like things that anyone would say if they were truly in that situation.

With those flaws noted, there is still quite a bit to like. Although the characters actions or lines sometimes seem ridiculous, they really do seem like real people that anyone could meet. By making the characters just regular people, and not scientists or soldiers, we are able to empathize with them in a way that we normally can’t in this genre. I also appreciate the fact that the film doesn’t provide any sort of a quick-fix ending. At the very beginning of the film we are told that the tape was found at the location “previously known as Central Park,” an ominous statement that tips us off to the ultimate result of the attack.

Cloverfield is really just as much “experience” as it is “movie”, and it is definitely worth the price of admission. It’s not every day that you see writers or directors step outside the box, especially in such a traditionally formulaic genre, so when they do, it is important to take note. I stated at the beginning that I recommend checking it out, but just make sure that whoever you’re planning on watching it with isn’t prone to motion sickness before you pop it in your DVD player.

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I’m not normally big on monster movies. This may surprise some people because I’m normally a huge fan of horror movies in general. Serial killers? Sure. Zombies? Why not? Murderous ghosts? I’ll give it a shot. For some reason, however, monster/creature movies have always struck me as being a little too over the top and outrageous. After seeing The Host, though, I’m now beginning to think that this was just because there hasn’t been a decent monster movie made in recent memory.

The Host is set in Seoul, South Korea and centers on the highly dysfunctional Park family. Gang-du and his father, Hie-bong, run a small food stand on the bank of the Han River. Hang-du doesn’t have a whole lot going for him. He’s kind of chubby, he’s always falling asleep on the job, and he doesn’t really seem to have any sense of ambition. Somehow, however, he must have at least had his game together at one point because he has a daughter Hyun-seo, who appears to be smart and very well adjusted. Hang-du’s sister, Nam-joo, is a world class archer who has the problem of freezing under pressure, and his brother, Nam-il is a cynical alcoholic.

The film opens with a scene in a morgue with a cold-hearted American ordering his Korean assistant to dump hundreds of bottles of formaldehyde down the drain, even though he knows full well that the pipes eventually lead to the Han River. (Interesting Note: This is based loosely on a real event, where an American ordered 20 gallons of waste that contained formaldehyde be dumped down the drain. The drain would eventually lead to the Han River, but not before passing through two water treatment plants and reducing any formaldehyde to safe levels.) This is really the only explanation we get for the monster’s existence and it seems to be done more as a courtesy to the viewer than as a necessary plot device. As much as I think my subconscious wanted a more complete explanation of how this menacing creature came into existence, when I think back, I think the way this was handled worked well. This allows the film to be presented as more of a disaster movie, likening the monster to an earthquake or tornado, which adds a sense of realism. The message that is put across to the characters/viewers is basically, “You may never know exactly how or why this creature is here, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is, so now you’re going to have to deal with it.”

The creature first makes its presence felt when it attacks the area of the Han River bank where the Park’s operate their business. The creature is menacing and devastatingly powerful, but not to an absurd degree. The fact that the damage the creature creates is proportional to its size (which seems to be comparable to a school bus) really does wonders for the film. If the monster would have been smashing buildings or throwing tanks around it would have been too easy to become comical. Amid the chaos of this first attack, the creature captures Hyun-seo, despite Gang-du’s best efforts to save her. Gang-du and the entire Park family are distraught. They think that they have lost the little girl forever. After the attack, all of those that survive are taken to a large gymnasium that is basically set up like the Super Dome after Hurricane Katrina. It is here that we learn that the only other person beside Gang-du to come into contact with the monster and survive appears to be suffering from some strange new virus that officials decide must be carried by the beast. Gang-du is immediately perceived as a threat and is taken into custody. While in quarantine, Gand-du receives a phone call that encourages him to hold out hope that his daughter may still be alive and he might have the chance to save her.

From a visual standpoint, I thought The Host was very well shot. There were a lot of muted gray, green, and blue tones throughout the film which worked especially well in the sewer scenes of the movie. The creature also looks fairly realistic, both in its movement and appearance, which is a credit to whoever was in charge of the film’s CGI.

My one serious problem with the DVD is the terrible English dub. Normally I watch foreign films in the native language with subtitles, but when I started this one up and it defaulted to English audio I decided to let it go. This was a mistake. Whoever cast the English voice over actors for The Host needs to get fired from whatever project they are currently on just because they did such an awful job here. The English voices were beyond ridiculous and at some points were just outright cartoonish. Often, there was slapstick emphasis in places it where it had no business being and there were frequently very significant differences in what the dub said and the subtitled translation put on the bottom of my screen. Why was I watching the movie in English with English subtitles, you may ask? Well, this is mainly because I had that little belief that the voice actors were actually doing the writer’s script justice. I think I would have enjoyed Host significantly more if I had watched it in Korean, and I partially blame myself, but that isn’t enough to excuse just how unprofessional a job this was.

That being said, I still did enjoy the film quite a bit. For anyone who is considering renting the movie, I still recommend it. Just watch it in Korean with subtitles. The Host is filled with great suspense, solid art direction, and awesome CGI. If you like horror movies then this falls into the “Definitely Rent It” category. If you don’t like horror movies, I still think there is plenty of value in The Host that makes it worth your while. While great at generating suspense, the monster isn’t something that the faint of heart are going to have nightmares about. There is also just enough humor / satire thrown in to make Host a completely worthy selection for a movie night with a few friends.

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