Cloverfield

[Kinetic 0]

I don't want to make it seem like I'm offended by this or that anyone else should be. I'm not making a Bill O'Reilly argument. What I'm saying is that it's conceptually flawed because it doesn't recognize that a "flying objects crashing into the city, panic in the streets" sort of setup is a relic; it has actually happened, and in the very city in which this movie depicts its fictional situation as happening, no less. How do you effectively create fake terror when your situation so closely resembles a legitimate historical event--an event that is inherently 100x more terrifying for having actually occured-- not even a decade old?

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

Once again, it's easy. The monster is laying waste to the ENTIRE city (presumably). That's a lot worse, in theory, than two towers falling.

[Cowboy Battlenuts 0]

This isn't a "things flying into new york buildings" tho. It's a giant monster creeps up from the ocean and destroys New York. I think making a connection based on New York getting destroyed alone is pretty far fetched and if we can't make movies about New York getting fucked up anymore, doesn't that mean the terrorists have won?

[Guest Smues]

It's a giant monster creeps up from the ocean and destroys New York.

So it's Godzilla 98? Ewww.

 

I have some mild interest in seeing this, but the fact that they don't tell you about the monsters origins apparently are turning me off.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

Why? Why must everything be explained? Isn't there such a thing as a monster (which is an animal in its basest sense) just fucking shit up because that's what it does? People don't ask for explanations for why a shark attacks people in Jaws or why spiders attack in Arachnophobia. They know that's possible. But a bona fucking fide monster needs explaining? Really?

[dubq 0]

It's a giant monster creeps up from the ocean and destroys New York.

So it's Godzilla 98? Ewww.

 

I have some mild interest in seeing this, but the fact that they don't tell you about the monsters origins apparently are turning me off.

 

I just love that aspect, actually. He came. He saw. He fucked shit up. Carpenter's the Thing was iffy on the explanation of where the Thing actually came from and what it's deal was... but that movie still rocked the fucking house.

[Epic Reine 0]

There were some really obvious flaws in movie

(how do you get cell phone service in the subway?)

but overall it was exactly what it was: huge disasterpiece. I thought the monster looked really good as well.

[Mik 0]

I loved this movie. About 20 minutes in, right before the attack I had to piss so bad that I thought I was going to explode and once shit started happening I forgot all about having to go to the bathroom, which just about never happens. The post on the last page that said it sort of felt like a ride is right.

 

I felt like we weren't going to get a clear shot of the monster but luckily the whole "they're never going to show it" crowd was dead wrong.

 

I also felt like the trailer, while very vague, gave away some key moments like

Marlena asplodin' and the whole ending of the movie w/ Rob talking into the camera.

 

You gotta at least see this one.

 

[Mik 0]

This is supposedly a video someone took in a theatre of the Cloverfield Monster in .gif form. The footage is kind of dark, but view at your own risk or something:

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/Ghos...mallslowhu0.gif

 

That is directly taken from the movie. Do not click if you are avoiding spoilers.

[Jaxxson Mayhem 0]

I think that's a slight reach to make the correlation between 9-11 and the Cloverfield plot. Yes in both we have NYC being under attack, but 9-11 was a situation where you had a bunch of terrorists taking command of a plane and crashing into WTC. I haven't seen Cloverfield but I assume the monster attacks the city on a larger scale, and in the Hollywood style. Now if they had inserted the WTC towers digitally in the film and had the monster take the towers out as well, then you'd have something there, IMHO.

 

 

There is one scene where it looks like exactly what happened. A building falls, smoke and soot everywhere. People walking slowly away in awe and shock. People covered in ash. It is very similar.

[reign 0]

I echo the sentiments that this felt more like a ride than a movie..my brother and I kept saying "damn!" and it was cool to see people trying to stretch to see something like they were really there..the guys from the film were on O&A this morning and brought up the idea that we might someday see the same attack but from a different person's perspective...kind of like on Lost...overall I liked it and there were plenty of "holy shit" moments.

 

And for those that need an explanation...what explanation would satisfy you? The typical radioactive/alien/demon/whatever one? The monster is the backdrop of a survival/love story...I don't care where the monster came from..to be honest it wasn't all that cool looking..it was the perspective of the movie that makes this thing a winner.

 

This has me very excited for Diary of the Dead...

 

Also trailers for

Star Trek

and

Doomsday

looked badass...

[The Niggardly King 0]

Great movie.

 

I don't understand being offended when New York gets attacked in movies now... I can see feeling uncomfortable. But come on, throughout movie history, New York has always gotten the shit beaten out of it... fucking iconic.

[The Niggardly King 0]

It's a giant monster creeps up from the ocean and destroys New York.

So it's Godzilla 98? Ewww.

 

I have some mild interest in seeing this, but the fact that they don't tell you about the monsters origins apparently are turning me off.

 

Hey, they already pretty much told us the whole story. If you followed the advertisements and shit online, new about the hype of it... then you pretty much know what's going on... that's all there is to it. If not, then you're not going to enjoy, unless if you wanna see one huge fucked up thing destroy stuff, then hey, you love it.

 

I can see a sequel to this based on the fact

it's presented as the government going over this as a document. Seeing what failed, planning another attack, etc.

[The Niggardly King 0]

There were some really obvious flaws in movie

(how do you get cell phone service in the subway?)

but overall it was exactly what it was: huge disasterpiece. I thought the monster looked really good as well.

 

Sorry but if I'm gonna see some big thing destroy New York, fuck everything up... I just might have to suspend my believe on the

cell phone thing

[Nighthawk 0]

You know, it's open season to do whatever you want with Hitler, and the Holocaust is way worse than 9/11. I crusade for a world where there's no such thing as "too soon".

 

BTW, I'll be seeing Cloverfield tomorrow afternoon, and possibly again in the evening if I like it enough.

[treble 0]

This was really good. And they can easily make a franchise out of this if they want to. All they have to do is have a bunch of different perspectives of it with different groups of people in different parts of the city.

[haws bah gawd 0]

I saw this tonight and enjoyed the hell out of it. Everything came across exactly as I hoped it would. Plus, JJ Abrams was right in saying he didn't use a cute monster, rather it was something that was insane. I recommend this to all.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

This was good. The monster was pretty cool, and I liked the dosage we got. The gimmick was a little thin by the end, and Lily doing all this running and climbing in heels was a riot, but overall, thumbs up. Nothing too big in terms of "BLAH BLAH BLAH DISASTER OMG" big heavy deep thoughts, but a lot of shit getting fucked up and a monster doing some good people eating, smushing, and popping.

[treble 0]

The best part, for me, was after the

helicopter crash

, some kid in the theatre yelled out, "That was fucked up" in the silence that followed. I'm not usually a big fan of people talking during movies, but pretty much everyone there was laughing at that.

[LaParkaMarka 0]

Someone said "DAMN" in the silence that followed in my theater...it got a big laugh.

 

I thought the Rob character was the biggest moron on the planet.

I'm glad he died. Marlena and Hud died just because that idiot had to go back for his impaled not a girlfriend? Give me a break.

 

Some moments in the movie were pretty cool. It's a good theater movie if you can handle the shaky cam stuff, I know some people left due to nausea. Hud was easily the highlight, that guy was great. "I think the video store is closed, Rob"

[milliondollarchamp 0]

Hud had some great lines like the hobos on fire when they walked trough the tunnel and

when the little monsters attcked him he said I think it wanted to make me its' queen,

[Jaxxson Mayhem 0]

Hud was easily the best.

 

He's pretty funny in Carpoolers also.

[Turbo Lion 0]

Kinetic, a thought:

 

Godzilla was, let's be honest, an answer to Hiroshima. If the Japanese can cope by creating a monster movie from the destruction brought to them by a *nuke*, then we can let people begin to explore the effects of 9/11. We lost two buildings -and please, please, please, please, please don't think I am devaluing that in any way!! -- but they got fucking nuked.

 

I don't believe the answer to 9/11 is to run from it, ignore it or make it untouchable. The thing about Cloverfield is this: it's not about that monster. It's about ordinary people doing extraordinary things - heroic things - in the face of destructive evil and tragic loss. Lots of people did that on 9/11, when ideological monsters tore the city apart - and that should be elevated and honored.

 

I think that's what makes Cloverfield something very good and not something exploitive or distasteful. The origin of the monster movie lies in trying to figure out our place in a destructive world. It's kind of fitting, in a very strange way, to have Cloverfield emerge to help do that.

 

Just my thoughts on the subject.

[Kinetic 0]

I think that's a totally valid response to an argument that I wasn't making. All that I was saying is that the impact is inherently diminished when you have a movie monster destroy a city that we all personally witnessed being attacked a few years ago. That's all.

[milliondollarchamp 0]

According to The Box Office Junkie (http://theboxofficejunkie.com)

 

"Cloverfield exploded onto the scene with an awesome $16.8 million on Friday. Paramount's experimental advertising campaign has paid off in a big way. I'm expecting this one to be very frontloaded, so a 3.0 multiplier over four days could be in order. Still, this would give Cloverfield an amazing $49 million over the holiday weekend."

 

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Question about the very end. According to the Wikipedia entry summarizing the plot,

The final scene returns to footage from the month before, in which Rob and Beth enjoy a date at Coney Island, happy and carefree. Something falls out of the sky and splashes into the water in the distance, unnoticed.

 

Anyone else see that? If it's there, I missed it entirely.

[jwest27 0]

I missed it, but one of my friends who was there immediately started yelling about it. "YOU DIDN'T SEE THAT? OH MY GOSH". I haven't seen any images or videos of it on the web yet.

[Scroby 0]

fuck i need to see this movie. Just advoiding all the spoilers makes me want to go see this movie.

[Mik 0]

I missed it too. Shit.

[Jaxxson Mayhem 0]

I missed it too.

 

 

One of my friends also told me about it. I don't think anyone in the theater noticed either when I saw it. All 6 of us.