Cloverfield Discussion

I don't get to see many movies with a 4 month old in the house, but I managed to escape to see Cloverfield. Stop reading immediately if you don't want spoilers. It's Blair Witch's first person camera work, applied to a small (for the genre) budget monster movie. The monster is cool. The little monsters are cool. The acting is sometimes good, sometimes awkward. The action is often great and very intense. And it will undoubtedly be the most hyped movie of 2008 until the spring blockbusters arrive. I really enjoyed the movie, but I'm posting this so you guys can have a place to talk amongst yourselves about this movie. Groundbreaking movie-making or just hype-making? I'm not sure. I'm also not sure my skull can handle watching it again- that jerky camera action gave me a headache. (Also, there was a Star Trek teaser trailer attached, and I'm almost ashamed to admit that I want it so badly it made me hurt. Please Abrams, don't screw it up)

The keyword in that diatribe was 'hyped'...

[Anonymous Coward]

The movie itself was pretty lame overall. I'm calling it Snakes on a Plane II.

I liked it

[DetpackJump]

I loved it up until they survived the helicopter going down. I wished the movie would have ended with the crash.

Re:I'm not sure

[fahrbot-bot]

Why do people treat shit camera work as though it's something raw and edgy?

When it's done on purpose, which is, unfortunately, too often.

Re:The keyword in that diatribe was 'hyped'...

[dknj]

i.e. Cloverfield was 'hyped' as a movie following a group of people USING A CAMCORDER. Who the fuck has a steadycam when they're filming a house party.

With that said, I know I have a much steadier hand than most people but thats because i grew up using a camcorder. Give a camcorder to your friend that's never touched one before and you'll have your very own Cloverfield in the making. There were plenty of parties I left to my friends to record came out a blurry mess. It also doesn't get better the drunker you get (which happened in Cloverfield) or when you're running for your fucking life.

Next jackass commenter that decides to complain about a movie that is hyped and describe as one way yet they expect a different experience (i.e. TooMuchToDo) needs to get cockpunched. People in the movie theater enjoyed the dizzying effect for 2 hours.

Re:Vertigo killed this film

[dubl-u]

After 45-60 minutes of non stop camera going in every direction possible, you just can't watch it without losing your head,

I definitely found it a little disorienting, but scary movies often play on disorientation, so for me it was just part of the effect. I went to see it with a dozen people, and we all enjoyed it. We all had a couple of drinks in us, though, so perhaps a little anesthesia helps.

Re:Hollywood hype

[captnitro]

Just an alternative opinion. I hated Blair Witch, but I thought Cloverfield was the scariest movie I've seen in a long time. The scariest movie I've seen in a long time, if your local theater supports the dB level the movie really requires.

I saw it as a welcome departure from the Bay/Bruckheimer formula with too-wide, sweeping, omniscient shots where everything's in view, all the time -- the movie didn't focus on the unlikely high-school hero, wasn't concerned with the monster's presence, the pinnacle of the movie wasn't about some magic weapon that would defeat it. It was hopeless and gritty and pretty frightening if you were close to 9/11. CGI was used sparingly, relative to a lot of films these days.

Re:The keyword in that diatribe was 'hyped'...

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

The problem is we're used to the regular monster movie. We see the government's point of view, we see them engage the monster directly, and we see them figure out how to kill the thing. In Cloverfield, we see some kids running for their lives, helping their friend save the girl he has always loved, and between the kids and the girl, there's a giant monster being shot at by army dudes.

It's not really a "giant monster movie" as we're used to, and I really think that's the problem most people have with it. I, personally, loved it. I'm a HUGE fan of TJ Miller (Hud, aka the camera guy), and I think it's funny that he's the only character to directly be killed by the monster.

books .. check'em out

[OrangeTide]

Whatever it is, it makes me want to read books instead.

Re:The keyword in that diatribe was 'hyped'...

[jollyreaper]

The problem is we're used to the regular monster movie. We see the government's point of view, we see them engage the monster directly, and we see them figure out how to kill the thing. In Cloverfield, we see some kids running for their lives, helping their friend save the girl he has always loved, and between the kids and the girl, there's a giant monster being shot at by army dudes.

It's not really a "giant monster movie" as we're used to, and I really think that's the problem most people have with it. I, personally, loved it. I'm a HUGE fan of TJ Miller (Hud, aka the camera guy), and I think it's funny that he's the only character to directly be killed by the monster.

That's exactly it. There was no music until a minute and a half into the credits, nothing was structured like a normal movie. The last American Godzilla was widely panned. It has a conventional structure, elements that really had no business being in the film but were included because of formula, etc. Who the fuck wants to see a romance subplot when we came to see giant monsters? In Cloverfield, it was there because that's what was going on in their lives before the monster struck. In Godzilla, it gets thrown in there because that's what the focus groups ask for. And you have to have the brilliant scientist who finds a solution, yadda-yadda. In Cloverfield, it goes closer along the lines of what you'd expect if a disaster movie happened in real life -- everyone dies.

I mean shit, if you want a real life example of a camcorder disaster movie, check out those French brothers from 9-11. They were filming a firehouse documentary and got caught up in 9-11. They were on the fire engines heading to the towers, they were in the lobby as the bodies were crashing down, they got out just in time to escape the collapse and were covered in tower dust. I'm sure if you didn't explain the source of the footage, haters would come out saying it was so totally unrealistic and those "actors" were a bunch of Hollywood fags who don't know how real New York firemen are.