Love it or hate it, ‘Cloverfield’ creates monstrous chaos in Manhattan’s midst

In theaters

CLOVERFIELD, directed by Matt Reeves, written by Drew Goddard, 84 minutes, rated PG-13.

Long before the Statue of Liberty’s head is ripped off its neck and hurled down the streets of lower Manhattan, where it lands with a thud in the new Matt Reeves movie, “Cloverfield,” you know you’re in for something you’re either going to love or loathe.

For the most part, the deciding factor will come down to the way the movie is filmed.

Much like its technical inspiration, “The Blair Witch Project,” the film’s conceit is that you witness its story through a handheld video camera – and not one armed with a steadying device. This frenetic, jittery movie is shot by characters running for their lives from a towering monster destroying Manhattan as if it were a house of cards.

For those who can stomach the crazed rush of jerky madness that ensues, they might find that the technique amplifies the action with a sense of urgency – it does, after all, put you in the middle of the chaos in ways that a third-person perspective could not. But for those who find the idea of watching a movie that seems as if it were filmed from the business end of a jackhammer, well, motion sickness and headaches might take hold.

From Drew Goddard’s script, “Cloverfield” begins with a surprise going-away party thrown for popular Rob (Michael Stahl-David), who has just been named vice president for an unnamed company in Japan (birthplace of Godzilla, natch), to which he’s about to relocate.

Rob’s best friend, Hud (T.J. Miller), has been charged by Rob’s brother, Jason (Mike Vogel), to film the farewell testimonials. With video camera in hand, Hud bumbles around the party garnering those testimonials – all while trying to make nice with grim Marlena (Lizzy Caplan), who dislikes him. Meanwhile, Rob arrives to cheers.

His elation doesn’t last long. First, his estranged girlfriend Beth (Odette Yustman) shows up with a new beau on her arm, and then, after she argues with Rob and leaves in a huff, all hell breaks loose when an explosion rocks Manhattan.

To the rooftop the partygoers flee, where they watch skyscrapers collapse in ways that leave many wondering aloud whether “it’s the terrorists.” Soon enough, on streets choked with enough soot and debris to recall images of Sept. 11, which the movie uses to bolster its horror, they find out exactly what they’re up against – a beast so beautifully realized by the film’s superb special effects, “Cloverfield” starts to amp up the heat with mounting, claustrophobic tension. One scene that involves hundreds of people caught on the Brooklyn Bridge, for instance, is the movie at its harrowing best.

At its scripted worst, the film’s shaky premise can steal you out of the moment: As selfish as the main characters come off at the start (the exception is Hud), we’re meant to believe they nevertheless will journey into the heart of monster madness and risk their lives when Rob receives a distressing phone call from Beth, who needs their help and whom he is determined to save. Given all that they endure trying to reach her, it’s a stretch to believe they wouldn’t turn back midway through, if only to save themselves, but since the whole movie is a stretch anyway, it’s best not to look for logic and just go with it.

Since “Cloverfield” offers scenes of gripping terror – and a few moments of genuine surprise – many will be happy they do so.

Grade: B

On DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray

THE INVASION, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, written by David Kajganich, 96 minutes, rated PG-13.

Oliver Hirschbiegel’s thriller “The Invasion” is the latest movie based on Jack Finney’s sci-fi novel “The Body Snatchers,” which first was serialized in Colliers Magazine in 1954 before being made into four films – 1956’s “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” the 1978 remake of the same name, 1993’s “Body Snatchers,” and now this.

The film stars Nicole Kidman as Dr. Carol Bennell, a pill-pushing, pill-popping psychiatrist whose creepy ex-husband, Tucker (Jeremy Northam), is overcome by aliens and who, in turn, turns those close to him into disconnected, dehumanized shells of their former selves, just as he himself has become. No word on whether Kidman’s ex, Tom Cruise, was available for the part.

The movie opens with a space shuttle crashing to Earth and spreading alien spores across a vast terrain. Quickly, those curious enough to touch the debris become infected, which leads to a mass outbreak of sameness.

Everyone starts to behave as if they’re on a morphine drip. Personalities are eradicated, though violence nevertheless thrives even as worldwide peace is achieved. These people, all reborn from the film’s updated version of a pod, are willing to attack if it means spreading those spores. The idea is that once we’re all infected, we’ll essentially be a large nest of worker ants drained of our souls and the need to kill.

But at what cost? Our individuality, of course, which Carol and others are willing to fight to protect. Motivating her – and fueling the film’s action – is that her son, Oliver (Jackson Bond), has been kidnapped by Tucker in an effort to convert him. Since Carol isn’t about to let that happen, even though she’s become infected by Tucker herself, the gloves are off with an underused Daniel Craig joining Carol in her effort to save him and, by extension, the rest of the world.

From David Kajganich’s script, “The Invasion” is a tightly paced, involving movie that underscores the timeless appeal of Finney’s tale. This isn’t the best recent remake of a modern-day horror classic – that would go to Zack Snyder’s “Dawn of the Dead” – but it does tap into the fear that Earth and its inhabitants are just one microbe or spore away from ruin.

Some, of course, might say that in this era of the iPod, technology already has brought us there, neatly turning us into zombies whose lives are increasingly disconnected, isolated and internal. “Invasion” oddly misses that angle, but what it finds in its biological angle does prove stirring enough.

Grade: B-

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle, as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.