Cloverfield

[Chilli Bob]

I just got home from seeing Cloverfield, and just want to say......
BEST...MONSTER...EVER!!

Did anyone else think so?

I know this has nothing to do with Ubuntu, I just love monster flicks.

[Tundro Walker]

Wow. Where do you live that you got to sneak peek it on Wednesday?

Looks like it got good reviews, but I'm always skeptical about films that generate lots of hype. They're setting the "expectations" bar pretty high, so some folks may roll in expecting too much, and not be gratified with anything they see.

PS:

Movie industry's coming out with some lame stuff lately. I think Cloverfield and Batman are the only movies I was really looking forward to in a long time. You know things are bad when "The Bucket List" is the main attraction at the local theatre, tying up 2 to 3 screens.

[Chilli Bob]

I'm in Australia, so it's actually Thursday night here. Without giving spoilers, I'd say go see this at the cinema. It may not be for everyone, but it's a new take on the monster movie, and certainly not the let-down I was expecting. It's not what I would call a "Hollywood" film.

[mrgnash]

I'm in Australia, so it's actually Thursday night here. Without giving spoilers, I'd say go see this at the cinema. It may not be for everyone, but it's a new take on the monster movie, and certainly not the let-down I was expecting. It's not what I would call a "Hollywood" film.

A Hollywood film is a film produced by a Hollywood studio; it's not some subjective label that one can throw around willy-nilly.

At any rate, I'm looking forward to seeing this one.

[rickyjones]

Saw a Sneak Peak on Tuesday night. Loved it!

[Linuxratty]

Godzilla fancied up.Been there,seen that,bored to death.
:roll:

[SunnyRabbiera]

Godzilla fancied up.Been there,seen that,bored to death.
:roll:

Yeh, what was the point...
this movie looked like a bad godzilla ripoff from the start.

[Tundro Walker]

A Hollywood film is a film produced by a Hollywood studio; it's not some subjective label that one can throw around willy-nilly.

At any rate, I'm looking forward to seeing this one.

No, actually "Hollywood" has taken on a new meaning these days...IE: mainstream crap / switch-brain-off movie. Dude, keep up with the times. :)

[Chipter]

I'll go see it... probably wait for it to come out on DVD tho.

Looks like either a Godzilla movie, or some sort of Cthulhu'ish creature.


Can someone fill me in on one thing tho.
Is the movie the same style as the commercials, with the crappy camera work reminiscent of Blair Witch or is that just some gimmick to get the word out?

[Chilli Bob]

A Hollywood film is a film produced by a Hollywood studio; it's not some subjective label that one can throw around willy-nilly.

Well, as mentioned above it does have both literal and subjective meanings. I thought I made the meaning clear by putting it in quotes.

Anyhoo, to answer Chipter, yes, it is all hand held camera, much like Blair Witch. I didn't find it as bad as the shakey-cam in Bourne Supremecy though.

[mthei]

Being a huge sucker for giant monster movies, in fact those being the only kinds I'm able to sit through anymore, I'll certainly see this, but not being a fan of the writer or producer, I'm not expecting this to break any new ground. Although based on the animated gif currently making rounds online (google it, or search for it on the unfiction forums), I'm not as let down as I thought I would have been about two or three months ago when I gave up on following the viral sites related to this, which seemed to have picked up a lot since I've stopped.

[Tundro Walker]

So I saw Cloverfield tonight.

Pro ... I think it lived up to it's hype. Compared to the Godzilla remakes several years back, I'd say this was way better.

Pro ... they left a lot unexplained, which was good...made it creepier.

Con ... all the cons I'm going to talk about have to do with the perceived "realism" they were trying to incorporate into the movie...and how I think they screwed it up some.

1) No f-bombs. None. It's PG-13 so the kids can go see it. But, quite frankly, if a monster was attacking the city, you'd be hearing so many f-bomb's drop every second it wouldn't even be funny. In the movie, you hear one, maybe two swear words, none of them an f-bomb (which is an "R" rating word). This really detracted from the realism, and almost made the actors seem a bit blaise' in their reactions.

2) Again, big monster's attacking the city. Normal person in real life who has a cam in hand would keep it glued to the monster as 24/7 as they could. But, no, the dude "filming" this seems more fascinated in filming his friends than the big bad whatever that's on a tear. Yes, there are moments when that's all he can do (not complaining about that). But, when you're in the middle of a street war between the army and a huge monster, you'd focus the GD cam on the monster instead of pointing it at your friends the whole time. (I know, I know, the audience would be lost without seeing some of this friend interaction, but you know what...it detracts from the realism.)

3) The marathon sprint the injured girl makes at the end really detracted from the realism, too. Won't go into details, but when someone's been that badly injured, they won't be moving for long in real life.

4) These people make some of the dumbest GD decisions I've seen in a "realistic" movie. It's the type of stupid decision making you'd expect from a typical Hollywood horror flick, not a "mockumentary". There were just moments I kept thinking "man, how stupid are these people" ("weapons? we don't need no stinking weapons?", "flashlights? why the heck would we need those...it's not like it's the middle of the night, and the power in the city's going out", "safety? screw that, we're going to <do everything they basically do in the film which is reckless and dumb>!")

5) it was a bit annoying that the guy was "filming" all the in-between stuff where he and his friends are figuring out what to do. I know that was necessary to have a coherent movie for the audiences' sake, but in real life you'd switch the cam off between monster sitings. (This is pretty forgivable.)

All in all, Pretty good.

The worst part is, though, that Hollywood will see this as a success, and start cranking out tons of crap-tacular creature features instead of imaginative stuff like this.

EDIT:

The sounds in this movie kept making me think of Half-Life 2 the whole time.

[Neon Lights]

Awesome movie.

I'm not the biggest fan of the ending.
I just was typing up this huge post, and suddenly resolved the ending is best left the way it is. xD

But it'd be nice if like, they had continued it. Or given like an epilogue. I dunno. >< So much is just left unexplained. But it's definitely an awesome movie, and I highly recommend seeing it.

Maybe if they come out with a book.....

[Æniad]

So it's a mutant whale after all eh?

[akiratheoni]

I loved this movie! It was worth the wait ever since the trailer in Transformers. But what was awesome too was the Iron Man trailer :-P I've seen it before but not on the big screen.

[jriggz]

Godzilla fancied up.Been there,seen that,bored to death.
:roll:

It's absolutely nothing like a Godzilla movie.

Perhaps you should give things a chance before discount and discard them.

[helloyo]

I didn't like the movie. I'm sure there will be plenty of people who have and will, but it isn't the sort of movie that I like.

For starters there is nothing original in the movie. Well, apart from the intermittent flashback scenes on the tape.

The character bonding they try to achieve at the beginning fails completely, I didn't care about the characters in the least.

The monster was too in your face and boring. I went to see the movie because I was under the impression that the monster would be on our scale, not some godzilla sized monolith. I guess I assumed that "Cloverfield" was the area harassed by the monster, no the whole city. I personally much prefer movies where the monsters effects are felt before you see the monster, if you even see it at all. That's just me though.

As for the realism, can somebody explain why the monster was damn near invincible. They hit it with a bombing run and two seconds later it has jumped hundreds of meters into the air at a random helicopter...

This was a very character centric movie. The monster was just a device to create some tension, there was nothing of interest about the monster. So my problem lies in the fact that the characters were boring, unrelatable and I didn't care if they died.

Wow... Sorry for the rant...

[warbread]

I'm trying to watch this movie, but unfortunately I get motion sick. It also doesn't help that I just ate some fairly sour food. I'm less than halfway through it and I'm taking my second break.

:/

[swoll1980]

without a doubt the worst movie I've ever seen

[warbread]

I made it without vomiting!

Of course, I listened to more of the movie than I watched, and I still feel like chundering, but it's not as bad as it could have been.

The movie itself was a letdown. Not worth the effort.

[rune0077]

Con ... all the cons I'm going to talk about have to do with the perceived "realism" they were trying to incorporate into the movie...and how I think they screwed it up some.

1) No f-bombs. None. It's PG-13 so the kids can go see it. But, quite frankly, if a monster was attacking the city, you'd be hearing so many f-bomb's drop every second it wouldn't even be funny. In the movie, you hear one, maybe two swear words, none of them an f-bomb (which is an "R" rating word). This really detracted from the realism, and almost made the actors seem a bit blaise' in their reactions.

2) Again, big monster's attacking the city. Normal person in real life who has a cam in hand would keep it glued to the monster as 24/7 as they could. But, no, the dude "filming" this seems more fascinated in filming his friends than the big bad whatever that's on a tear. Yes, there are moments when that's all he can do (not complaining about that). But, when you're in the middle of a street war between the army and a huge monster, you'd focus the GD cam on the monster instead of pointing it at your friends the whole time. (I know, I know, the audience would be lost without seeing some of this friend interaction, but you know what...it detracts from the realism.)

3) The marathon sprint the injured girl makes at the end really detracted from the realism, too. Won't go into details, but when someone's been that badly injured, they won't be moving for long in real life.

4) These people make some of the dumbest GD decisions I've seen in a "realistic" movie. It's the type of stupid decision making you'd expect from a typical Hollywood horror flick, not a "mockumentary". There were just moments I kept thinking "man, how stupid are these people" ("weapons? we don't need no stinking weapons?", "flashlights? why the heck would we need those...it's not like it's the middle of the night, and the power in the city's going out", "safety? screw that, we're going to <do everything they basically do in the film which is reckless and dumb>!")

5) it was a bit annoying that the guy was "filming" all the in-between stuff where he and his friends are figuring out what to do. I know that was necessary to have a coherent movie for the audiences' sake, but in real life you'd switch the cam off between monster sitings. (This is pretty forgivable.)


6) Where did he buy the batteries for his freaking camera? 'coz he kept it running for almost the entire monster-attack, and not once did a "low-battery" start flashing in the corner.

[warbread]

4) These people make some of the dumbest GD decisions I've seen in a "realistic" movie. It's the type of stupid decision making you'd expect from a typical Hollywood horror flick, not a "mockumentary". There were just moments I kept thinking "man, how stupid are these people" ("weapons? we don't need no stinking weapons?", "flashlights? why the heck would we need those...it's not like it's the middle of the night, and the power in the city's going out", "safety? screw that, we're going to <do everything they basically do in the film which is reckless and dumb>!")

People do stupid things when they're scared. I like fiction that shows people acting like people and not action heroes, even if people aren't making the best decisions.