Director: Matt Reeves
Cast: Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David
Have I Seen it Before: I skipped it in the theater, because who needs that kind of aggravation in their life, and I was able to watch the new teaser for Star Trek (2009) on my computer anyway. I caught it later.
Did I Like It: Matt Reeves is proving to be a terrific filmmaker. His work with Planet of the Apes breathed life into a franchise when literally no one thought there was any life left in it. What we’ve seen of his upcoming The Batman is pointing to it being the only possible way forward for that character post-Christopher Nolan.
So, why isn’t this film any fun?
Maybe I’m in a bad mood during this screening, and that can always skew a review that is meant to be a snapshot of how I feel about a film in the moment I am watching it, but I don’t remember ever being terribly delighted by the movie, so much so that I experienced a bit of a Mandela effect when I realized Matt Reeves directed here.
A bleak march into the inevitability of death might have been fun for some as a twist on the creature feature before, but in 2020 it feels like a sober prediction for the first week in December. You might want to check, but I think Nate Silver has the odds of Kaiju attack before the advent of a COVID vaccine at hovering right around 30%, which I’m thinking is about as close to metaphysical certitude as we’re likely to get these days.
The people are kind of quietly miserable before the monster announces itself. They are miserable as it wreaks havoc and they do they’re very best to not avoid danger. The monster is still alive at the end of the film, and every human we were supposed to care about—who bravely documented everything about the Attack of Clover long past the point of rationality—is dead.
That’s it. That’s the movie. And now I’m nauseous. What a delight.
At least it wasn’t The Cloverfield Paradox (2018).