Cloverfield (JJ Abrams, viral marketing)

[Stew]

**Spoilertastic.**

Wanna see the monster?

Small animated gif for some movement: CLICK.

Still image, larger: CLICK.

Pretty cool looking if you ask me!

[sylvianorth]

I'm not sure if this will actually be any good. Let's not get too excited.

[pANDAS Radio]

Since Cloverfield is entirely a 1 camera job, trying to make it look like it is one characters video camera as he captures the whole thing, it is really really really really annoying. Not least because you spend most of it thinking "why doesn't this arsewipe just stop filming every dangerous scenario, drop the camera and run away?".

Basically its a cross between Godzilla and The Blair Witch Project but the single person view and lack of character believability does leave you not caring whether anyone lives or dies. It also means that there is a shitload of Shakycam™ and you hardly get to see the monster at all. Now that I've seen it I don't need to see it again and doubt i'll ever want to. It's like watching someone else play a first person shoot 'em up very badly. Cloverfield is more like watching a drunk 5 year old playing AVP than watching Aliens or Predator.

[pANDAS Radio]

Originally Posted by GreatKingRat

It's a classic, apparently.



http://www.firstshowing.net/2008/01/...ted-a-classic/

The review on firstshowing.net praises the film as a classic but i think that is just someone trying to convince themself that chasing the viral marketing wasn't a waste of 8 months. After all, how much can you truly love a film when your review contains this....
(some bits highlighted by me)

I won't say that Cloverfield is the perfect film, because it really was nothing that the hype made it out to be and I am still having a problem accepting that. I really think that with some time and some consideration and possibly multiple viewings a little further down the road, I'll come to love Cloverfield even more. It'll take some time for me to get over the fact that this isn't an epic summer blockbuster monster flick, but rather a small film about these people trying to survive and the relationship between them. And I'm already starting to get to that in my mind and starting to love it more and more as I type this out.

It reminded me of the futility of The Day After Tomorrow. Who cares that one guy really wants to find their kid after a catastrophe? Everyone wants to find their kid after a catastrophe. But then you get the epic journey to find the kid where people die because their friend dragged them out in the snow. And just after he finds his kid..... everyone gets rescued. Therefore you've just watched the impatience of one guy get his friends needlessly killed. Who really cares that Cloverfield is shot from the perspective of one guy who is down amongst everything? He is the type of character that we've seen countless times before, usually in the guise of a reporter who just won't give up. We never sympathise with him when then monster has stood on him, we just think "that's what he gets for being such an idiot". As a result Cloverfield leaves you waiting for the monster to stand on the guy. What would have made this film truly groundbreaking would have been for them to release it in 2 different ways.

1. Single camera, see it from below and try to care about these people.
2. Standard format big blockbuster.

They could even have gone one step further and matched the timeframes so that you could have a split screen version perfectly linked by the surrounding action/lack of action. Now that would be groundbreaking. Instead you get to watch some superb effects and big action sequences from a running away perspective/from afar/out of the corner of someone elses eye.

[Devastator]

Or MAYBE somebody else has a different opinion from you?

[pANDAS Radio]

What opinion are you talking about? The fact that i don't think "with some time and some consideration and possibly multiple viewings" is a good review for something which the author calls a "classic" or some other opinion that i aired in my post? Please clarify.

[Devastator]

He said after multiple viewings he might love it even more. He said as he wrote the review he was loving it more and more, but you seem to think "He hates it! Look at this review, he thinks it's shit!" when all he's saying is that it isn't a big blockbuster movie and it wasn't what he thought it would be, but he still thought it was excellent.

[pANDAS Radio]

No, i think it comes across like they wanted to love it and is trying to talk themself into loving it.

[endless psych]

I'll come to love Cloverfield even more.

Kind of implies there was some lovin' involved at some point. (Although that is at odds with the overall tone of dissapointment in the rest of the quote.)

[Devastator]

However, Cloverfield really is not the epic, enormous monster blockbuster that the hype has made it into, and that is very important to remember. It's a very small film that is focused around this group and how they can get out of the city and survive. To some, this could turn out as a huge disappointment, and even for me, as a big summer blockbuster fanatic, I initially had a mild feeling of disappointment.

However, that feeling was overshadowed by that of the notion that why I loved this so much in the end is that it wasn't that epic kind of movie and that's what made it so unique and so memorable.

Guess it depends what bit you quote, eh?

[poprock]

The guy’s not a very good writer. That’s what it really tells you.

He’s trying to explain that the movie ain’t what he expected, but he liked it anyway … it’s just taking him a while to adjust his hyped-up fanboy expectations and reconcile them with the quieter flick it turned out to be.

[MarkMono]

He was expecting Godzilla, he got a big-budget episode of Lost.

[poprock]

How long until Abrams tries to do a crossover of some sort and drum up audience figures for Lost by having the Cloverfield monster wander past in the background or something?

[MarkMono]

Cloverfield 2 is actually the season finale to Lost.

[Bunnylingus]

This looks like itd annoy the utter fuck out of me, but i'll give it a go.