What's with the overuse of the name Robert Hawkins lately? After watching Jericho, it was hard for me to separate the name and allow it to be used as the protagonist of Cloverfield, but I got over it. Cloverfield stars a bunch of lesser-known twenty-something actors as friends and acquaintances at a party who all get caught in Manhattan at the wrong time - when a giant monster attacks the city. Since this movie has been around for a few months now, I'm going to post spoilers all throughout, so don't say I didn't warn you.

There was so much buzz around this movie that I really wanted to see it when it came out, but we were busy moving and Ric wasn't too excited about the handheld camera experience in the theater, so we waited and Netflixed it. The camera motions didn't bother me, but Ric was feeling a little tired out by the movie's end. I think the movie really did have an interesting concept with the camera work. It put us in the characters' situation with them, and we experienced it as they did. It was also a nice touch because of the moments where Hud the camera man paused the tape and small cuts of the previous footage on the tape revealed details of the relationship between Robert and Jenn.

The movie was definitely better than I thought it would be because of details like that. Sure, it had some cliches, including the idea of quarantining/bombing an island (see 28 Weeks Later, I Am Legend, etc.), the image of a damaged Statue of Liberty (Planet of the Apes), using a dark subway to escape danger (28 Weeks Later), and baby monsters (and subsequently, exploding humans: Alien trilogy). But the ways those were used were all effective, and the effects used with those ideas made it seem very real (except for the baby monsters, who seemed too dangerous to be beaten by three people and a pipe). Every moment still continued to be surprising and filled with tension.

As for the lesser-known casting, unfortunately Hud is also in the mediocre tv show Carpoolers, which I watched for a while in the hopes that it would get funnier. TJ Miller (Hud) plays a guy named Marmaduke, who is one of the stupidest individuals ever. I could only think of Marmaduke through the whole movie, so that kind of killed it for me.

Overall, I think Cloverfield started out a bit slow but got a lot better as it went. In fact, thinking about it now, I'm convinced that I like monster movies so much more than horror movies. And yes, I would group in zombie movies with monster movies. Those such as the first half of I Am Legend, 28 Weeks Later (minus the editing) and The Host all have some really creative aspects to them, whereas all horror movies seem to be pretty much the same. Somehow, it seems that in the monster movies, the characters are all still the focal point, and the monsters are only there to make the characters grow. I've been really interested by the ideas behind these types of movies lately. It will be interesting to see what happens to the genre over the next few years.

Ric and I went to see Iron Man at the uptown Whittier theater at a late showing. I think I'm going to go to Brea for all of my big movie openings from now on, because my last two shows have been full of talkie folk. I sat next to a row of 7-year-olds, but they were completely silent during the movie - it was the quiet-looking couple sitting behind me who had a conversation for the entire flick. Good thing the sound was up nice and loud.

I had no interest in this movie for the many months I had been hearing about it. My first thought when I saw a trailer was that Robert Downey Jr. was too old to play a superhero, and Gwyneth Paltrow wasn't so hot in Sky Captain, so I wasn't expecting much despite the fact that I'm a fan of both actors. But the reviews were hot and I suddenly changed my mind about it (and Ric really wanted to see it too). Surprisingly enough, it turned out to be one of the best comic hero movies Hollywood has made so far.

I didn't really have many issues with this movie, except for choosing the Walt Disney Concert Hall as one of its settings, since every other car commercial or action movie seems to have a scene there. That, and a kind of uninteresting underling villain were the two things that slightly irked me, but that's about it. The movie completely rides on the performances of its cast, along with a clever screenplay/dialog.

Robert Downey Jr. has come a long way from his self-destructive ways, and every performance he gives seems to cement him as an established, awesome actor. Iron Man is a perfect role for him, and his performance as Tony Stark is wonderful in his portrayal of playboy, contemplative/confused man, and superhero. Honestly, the casting was what worried me most, but ended up having the best payoff, because Paltrow was wonderful as well. I don't want to get too surfacy with this review, but red hair certainly does wonders for her. Her one-on-one scenes are some of the biggest highlights of the movie. And Jeff Bridges as a balding grey-haired evil guy was a complete surprise, but worked. Terrance Howard didn't have much of a chance for development with his character, so hopefully I'll have interesting things to say about him in Iron Man 2.

The special-effects are a lot of fun to watch. The Iron Man suit's development and final product are really impressive, especially as all of the parts of the suit lock into place with Tony Stark inside. The Jericho missile and Stark's escape from imprisonment were my favorite explosive touches. Actually, come to think of it, I think the earlier action sequences are a little more interesting than the final battle between Iron Man and whatever you call the super-sized version of him (which for some reason reminded me of the big robots in The Incredibles). Even still, the action is still very entertaining.

I am definitely looking forward to the next installment of this series. As the critics have rightfully said, Iron Man raises the bar high for 2008's summer movies. I'm not so sure any other action/adventure movie will be this good, but one can always hope.

Equal Rites: A Discworld Novel by Terry Pratchett