Real Reviews- Cloverfield Blu Ray

It was with some trepidation that I watched Cloverfield, fully expecting the film to be the typical teenage-oriented disaster flick, but I was pleasantly surprised. Not only was Cloverfield an exciting and tense disaster flick but it was also a monster movie, too. Kudos to the production team that created this over-the-top CGI adventure, but also to the director, Matt Reeves, who actually achieved decent performances from his young cast.

The plot of Cloverfield is pretty straight-forward: our heroes are seemingly trapped amidst an invasion in Manhattan, NYC. Warned to leave the island, our group begins the trek to safety until they decide to rescue another friend from a distant location. Soon they learn that the invasion is actually some sort of gigantic monster that can’t be killed by the Marines. Air strikes and bombings prove futile. Will our young heroes save their fallen comrade and make it off the island alive, or will the fearsome creature lay waste to the entire city including our heroes?

Let’s get this part out of the way: yes, there are several plot holes that could kill our story in mid-stride, but putting those aside, the script holds up quite well. If our heroes were not the gallant type, then all would have been well early on, but thankfully movies are about conflict and overcoming such obstacles. In Cloverfield, there is a mighty tall obstacle and it’s not taking any prisoners.

From the beginning of the movie it is apparent that the camera work will be experimental. Eschewing stable shots in favor of handheld digital cameras, the constant movement of the actors and the cameras can possible cause motion sickness in the viewer. Though the herky-jerky style did not bother me, it is distracting. But the filmmakers wanted to heighten the tension of a disastrous situation, and they accomplished it by having one of the characters filming the events as they tried to run for safety.

If there is a word that would aptly describe the sound design of Cloverfield it would be “un-frickin’-believable!” At one point I literally thought my subwoofer would explode because the bass was so jacked-up. To say the audio track is over-the-top would be an understatement. Cloverfield’s success rides on the soundtrack. Without it, it would just be another interesting flick.

I watched Cloverfield on Blu-ray disc and the PQ was actually decent considering the “spastic” camera work. Though by no means perfect, actually a lot of scenes were full of detail and clear images. Of course, much of the movie is meant to be seen through the camcorder so it appears that some post-production noise was added to degrade the image. The audio track was Dolby 5.1 TrueHD, and, as mentioned above, it was simply outstanding. I can’t imagine a better audio track in HD, so I would have to say this one is top-tier.

Rating: 8

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