cloverfield: um, where was everyone else?
Posted by rollinsloane on 21 January 2008
No matter how scary the monster or how efficient the military, there’s absolutely no way even in CGI-ville that the entirety of Manhattan could successfully clear out in about two hours. There’s no way. None. Period. When Cloverfield’s nubile 20-somethings scurry through the streets and subways and apartment buildings of one New York City without coming across so much as one other fleeing or cowering urbanite, the movie gives up the appealing cinema verite gimmick established by its handheld camcorder and pretty much goes into action movie-mode. Its early setting touches worked beautifully — electronic store burglary, zombie-like dust-covered crowds, a Central Park carriage horse wandering without a rider. Why not play a little more with the city and its famously hardened denizens and have the protags stumble across a pack of homeless in the subway (already armed with canned food and blankets), or an emptying club (mini-skirted girls clinging to frightened bouncers), or a gaggle of awed, camera-toting tourists? If you must attack New York, for God’s sake, at least have fun with it.
–Ollie
And why attack New York at all? Vulture has a list of other cities that could use a good monster thrashing. My vote’s for Vegas.
