Cloverfield... thoughts...

[P[a]pi]

Here are mine...

The movie was too sad for my taste. I have no use what so ever for sad movies.

I have two other minor problems with it, but above is my major problem with it.

I'd never watch it again, but I'd watch the sequal in hopes of viewing a resolution to the events.

Everybody feel free to share your thoughts about the movie.

 

[Journia]

I'd like to know what the monster was like, either here or on the PM. That is really my only thought on the movie as of now. And no, spoilers don't ruin it for me.

 

[chode]

Give me a spoiler, and whats the monster look like?

 

[jts963]

Give me a spoiler, and whats the monster look like?

A spoiler: Most of the central characters are idiots, because that's the only way a stupid plot like CLOVERFIELD's could work. See, in the real world, people run *away* from big dangerous monsters. In CLOVERFIELD, you hang around the city because (a) you have to risk your life to rescue a girl you already rejected or (b) you have to risk your life to help your lovesick friend rescue a girl he already rejected. Then you do idiot things like watch a swarm of rats all running past you from something that obviously terrifies them but you continue in that direction anyway. This is what as known as an "idiot plot": it only functions because most or all of the characters are idiots. CLOVERFIELD's success is proof that P. T. Barnum's maxim is still working full-time.

With enough viral marketing and JJ Abrams groupies praising CLOVERFIELD like it was going to redefine the monster movie genre, it's amazing what a "sensation" can be made with a shaky cam, an idiot plot, pared-down FX (there never is a full glimpse of the giant monster) and some mini-monsters that are interesting primarily because they are a lawsuit waiting to happen once the originator realizes how he was ripped off (Harlan Ellison successfully sued James "Terminator" Cameron with less evidence).

 

[duck171]

I saw a pic of the monster and it looks like a blue whale with six or eight flippers or arms that can walk around. It has a whale like tail and little monsters that jump off of it. Just search on google to see a pic.

 

[chode]

Thanks for saving my 8 bucks jts.

 

[Low_Roads]

I'd like to know what the monster was like, either here or on the PM. That is really my only thought on the movie as of now. And no, spoilers don't ruin it for me.

Nothing much to spoil... if you've seen the trailer, you already understand the rather stripped-down premise. The monster looks a lot like a bigger, more strung-out version of the Rancor pit monster from "Return of the Jedi"... nothing particularly novel.

I wanted to like this picture a lot more than I did. Structurally, it resembles the similarly unpleasant Roland Emmerich's "Godzilla" (a big monster to attack New York landmarks above ground, smaller beasties to menace folks in more confined spots) with the potentially interesting gimmick of home movie perspective. The sad truth is, the bloom is well off the "found footage" conceit... after "Blair Witch", nothing much is going to freshen it up, certainly not being force-fed the company of not-very-likable yuppie nitwits for an hour and a half. The swingingly off-kilter (allegedly verite) camerawork was no fun at all to look at, and the sound (in the theater where I saw it, at least) was assaultively loud. I won't see it again.

 

[Sorcerer Lance]

I saw a pic of the monster and it looks like a blue whale with six or eight flippers or arms that can walk around. It has a whale like tail and little monsters that jump off of it. Just search on google to see a pic.

that was'nt it, that picture was a fan-inspired piece of artwork as a prediction of what it would look like.

the real thing is more like a four-legged lizard-like monster with what seems to have two underdeveloped arms/legs between both sets of working legs.

 

[Snail Shell]

Aside from the rather half-baked plot and storyline, Cloverfield was War of the Worlds meets The Blair Witch Project. Monsters attack the planet shot from the first-person camcorder view.

If you liked either of the above, it's worth a shot. If you didn't like either or get motion-sick easily, avoid like the plague.

Snail Shell

 

[Journia]

I will have my own review of this once I see it this weekend.

 

[chode]

I was hoping this was going to be a new version of Godzilla, that one they made a few years back sucks balls. I hated the new version of godzilla.

 

[jts963]

Spoiler

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OK, here's an animated gif of the monster. It doesn't look like the whale pic that's been floating around. The artist who drew the whale pic admitted that it's just a pre-release fanart of what he thought the monster should look like. But he also claims he came up with the idea of parasites all on his own, which is unbelievable that he would do so without some input from somebody connected to the movie. Anyway, the monster is described as having both crustacean and fish or whale characteristics, and the small beasties are definitely parasites, not babies. In fact, one of the FAQs says the big monster is itself a baby. Can you say "sequel"? 🙄

http://www.cloverfield-movie.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/cloverfieldsmallslowhu0.gif

 

[J Unit]

OK Enough is enough (Possible Spoilers)

Ok be forwarned I suck at typing and grammar so sorry in advance if parts of this rant don't make sense.


I'm sorry but someone has to defend this movie & I guess that someone is me. Let me start off by saying I respect the "This movie sucked thing" cause its an opinion and like assholes we all have one. But I'm sorry, Cloverfield is a GREAT movie. Just look at it from start to end, and I mean starting back from July when the trailer was released. The trailer for this movie was absolutly genuis. It had No title, No Voice over, No real clear definition of what it was, so you watch it and you think oh this its probably just some dumb movie about some party with this dude whose going away and blah blah blah and its probably just another terrible comedy movie or drama that Hoolywood failed to abort, and the BAM! You hear that noise, the monster's roar and you're thinking what the fuck was that? Then you see the footage of the explosion followed by the Statue of Liberty's head getting thrown down the street and the mass panic and chaos that ensues, and then NOTHING! All you see after that is just five simple letters, 1-18-08, and you're left wondering HOLY SHIT what was that? Then the slew off rumors began to grow surronding the movie as to what its about with everyone guessing something different with the likes of Godzilla, Power Rangers, LOST, Cthulu, The Thing remake, to even Voltron (as assinine as it sounds) being thrown around, and slowly yet surly over the course of those six months so little information was leaked about this movie and thus keeping it still scrouded in mystery, but there were tiny clues and hints all over the internet that had people wondering what Tagaruto and Slusho and Tidowave all had to do with this movie. Then finally January came about brought with it Cloverfield and its path of destruction. And what a path it left, the movie itself was something else, it utilized the whole less is more concept in that the less you see of the monster the more you're drawn into watching the movie hoping to catch a glimpse of the beast much like the Blair Witch did. Except you do eventualy see the monster and let me just tell you, no one, and I mean no one could have ever seen that thing coming in terms of looks. It simpley was unlike anyhting I could have thought of, and beleive me I racked my brain over those six months thrying to figure this thing out and I wasn't even close. And the sound editing alone in the movie is fantastic, I loved the monsters roar, it still gives me chills everytime I hear it cause its just that creepy. It really gives you a visual as to what the monster is like. And hell even the sounds that have nothing to do with the mosnter are great, from the guns and rocket launchers firing to the booms of the fighter jets to the collasping debri of New York they're just really terrific.
Now I'm hearing that most people couldn't stomach the whole shaking camera part of it saying that its just too much and it cripples the movie. I don't think it does in the least, I think it adds to the movie and its greatness. I mean the whole story is This is what it would look like if a giant monster attacked New York and you were there when it happens. And as far as the whole love story part of the movie between Beth and Rob is needed. I mean without it you maybe have a movie thats about lets say an hour to 50 minutes long of just the gan of people trying to esacpe from New York and you have a minimal shots of the monster itself. So without the whole Rescuing Beth pert of the movie you lose out on a great deal of importance to the movie. What you have to realize too about that whole bit of the rescue mission is that, that is just one person's view of that night and we're just watching it in the after math of whats already happend, and beleive it or not there's word of the sequel being about the same night just being shot from another person's P.O.V. soyou could get something completly different with the next one and may end up actually liking the story line better than the first one. Who knows.
I really want to thank J.J. Abrams for this movie it was really something else and he did a great job of giving America a giant monster that we can now call our own. Like he said he wanted to give America its own Godzilla after spending time in Japan with his son and seeing an entire store dedicated to the King of all Monsters. This film in itself self is really a big tribute to Godzilla and all monsters movies before it, and it does one hell of a job bringing the monster movie genre back to the big screen. So heres to you Mr. Abrams. OUTSTANDING!











Oh almost forgot................................................ "It's Still ALIVE!"

 

[Sockstickler]

I'm definitely considering seeing this movie, just to see for myself. I do wonder something though. Does this monster have a name or anything? Japan has Godzilla, Mothra, Ghidorah and all those. J.J. Abrams said this is supposed to be our monster, so what are we supposed to call it? Cloverfield doesn't sound like a very menacing name, so I'm just curious about that.

 

[jts963]

I'm definitely considering seeing this movie, just to see for myself. I do wonder something though. Does this monster have a name or anything? Japan has Godzilla, Mothra, Ghidorah and all those. J.J. Abrams said this is supposed to be our monster, so what are we supposed to call it? Cloverfield doesn't sound like a very menacing name, so I'm just curious about that.

Here's a wacky idea. Let's call it The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Part 2.

Am I the only person in this forum who knows that TBF2F came BEFORE Godzilla, and that the Japanese copied off of *us*?

JJ Abrams is a pretty ignorant Hollywood "genius" to not know the history of his own industry. 🙄

 

[BigNorm]

i really loved that movie, but i have a really important question....

that black haired girl, the one who gets bitten in the subway tunnel, when the 2 guys in biohazard suits drag her off behind that clear plastic tent and you see a splat of blood as she dies. what happed? the the hazard suits kill her? i don't know since it looked like one of the suits collapsed also, did one of the small monster kill them, because everyone seemed to flee the room real fast.

 

[J Unit]

Ok the name of the beast I think is Gwaka cause from the pictures I see I see that written on it. Still dunno though, its kinda like Frankenstien's Monster even though people still refer to it as Frankenstien so maybe they'll just keep calling it Cloverfield. As for the chick who died from being bitten, you have to look at her shadow as thy pull her away, she starts to fucking expand and then just pops just like that solider we see minutes before it happens as hes being carted off and you see the giant fucking hole in his chest. And as for the Beast from 20,000 Leagues, WHO CARES? Really has anyone ever seen it? Oh wow someone already had the idea that a giant monster attacks a city big fucking deal, mostly every movie out in hollywoood these days aren't really original cause they share similarities with some obscure movie from the 50s seriously who cares. And really oh wow Japan copied from us? I could care less cause when it comes done to it sure it could be a copy of the idea but damn hell if the Japanese didn't do a way better job with it. I mean you'd have to search pretty far to find someone whos never heard of Godzilla.

 

[jts963]

Ok the name of the beast I think is Gwaka cause from the pictures I see I see that written on it. Still dunno though, its kinda like Frankenstien's Monster even though people still refer to it as Frankenstien so maybe they'll just keep calling it Cloverfield. As for the chick who died from being bitten, you have to look at her shadow as thy pull her away, she starts to fucking expand and then just pops just like that solider we see minutes before it happens as hes being carted off and you see the giant fucking hole in his chest. And as for the Beast from 20,000 Leagues, WHO CARES? Really has anyone ever seen it? Oh wow someone already had the idea that a giant monster attacks a city big fucking deal, mostly every movie out in hollywoood these days aren't really original cause they share similarities with some obscure movie from the 50s seriously who cares. And really oh wow Japan copied from us? I could care less cause when it comes done to it sure it could be a copy of the idea but damn hell if the Japanese didn't do a way better job with it. I mean you'd have to search pretty far to find someone whos never heard of Godzilla.

You sound just like the typical slacker who thinks he knows everything and winds up proving he knows nothing.

Gwaka is the name of the guy who made the animated gif, something a simple google search would have revealed to anyone who isn't intellectually lazy.

And The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms is in the Hollywood Science Fiction Hall of Fame. That's why the Japanese copied it. Everything in Gojira 1954 was done first and better in TBF2F, your ignorance notwithstanding.

TBF2F used state-of-the-art stop-motion animation. Gojira 1954 used a sumo wrestler in a rubber suit. If Gojira hadn't been recut with some patched-in American actors, Raymond Burr key among them, and retitled as Godzilla, most Americans and probably most non-Japanese would have never heard of it.

"Really has anyone ever seen it?" LOL!! TBF2F grossed over $5 mill in ticket sales, which would easily exceed $200 mill gross in today's sales.

Go ahead, keep pretending like the Japanese deserve all the credit. No wonder you're such a tool for viral marketing.

 

[Sweasel1]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v303/pushmepullyou/cloverfieldmonster.jpg

This is "Clover."

I personally enjoyed it. If you can get past the "home video" look it's a pretty good film. I am also a HUGE kaiju fan... and i'm very pleased that monster movies are still coming out, so i may be a little biased.

 

[Sweasel1]

The Cast of the film call it "Clover."

 

[jts963]

Thanks for the pic, Sweasel.

... If you can get past the "home video" look it's a pretty good film. ...

... The swingingly off-kilter (allegedly verite) camerawork was no fun at all to look at, and the sound (in the theater where I saw it, at least) was assaultively loud. I won't see it again.

Here's what I find especially stupid about this movie. Every modern hand-held videocam has some form of built-in image stabilizer. All the videographer has to do is flip a switch to use it. Certainly the Panasonic HVX-200 used in the movie has a very good image stabilizer (MegaOIS). So while current home videos are being made by amateurs with more or less steady images, the "professionals" who made this movie decided to make a large portion of their audience sick with vertigo by acting like they're using a hand-held from the previous century. 🙄

 

[J Unit]

You sound just like the typical slacker who thinks he knows everything and winds up proving he knows nothing.

Gwaka is the name of the guy who made the animated gif, something a simple google search would have revealed to anyone who isn't intellectually lazy.

And The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms is in the Hollywood Science Fiction Hall of Fame. That's why the Japanese copied it. Everything in Gojira 1954 was done first and better in TBF2F, your ignorance notwithstanding.

TBF2F used state-of-the-art stop-motion animation. Gojira 1954 used a sumo wrestler in a rubber suit. If Gojira hadn't been recut with some patched-in American actors, Raymond Burr key among them, and retitled as Godzilla, most Americans and probably most non-Japanese would have never heard of it.

"Really has anyone ever seen it?" LOL!! TBF2F grossed over $5 mill in ticket sales, which would easily exceed $200 mill gross in today's sales.

Go ahead, keep pretending like the Japanese deserve all the credit. No wonder you're such a tool for viral marketing.

Ok, what the fuck? I was just stating an opinion. You wanna ease up there? OK I get it TBF2F was first and is a great movie for its time. Ya got me I don't know all the facts, so sorry about that. But do ya really have call me a Slakcer and Ignorant and a Tool just because off my views about ONE movie and its preexsisting counterparts. I mean cut me some slack here I'm only 20.

Look I'm not looking for anymore arguing here cause I'll admit it, you got me on this one, but slacker and ignorant. Ouch.

 

[jts963]

*********************************

The numbers don't lie:

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekly/chart/

BOX OFFICE MOJO
WEEKLY BOX OFFICE
January 25–31, 2008

TW * LW * Title * Studio * Weekly Gross * %change * Theater Count / Change * Average * Total Gross * Budget
1 * N * Rambo * LGF * $22,798,146 * 0% * 2,751 / 0 * $8,287 * $22,798,146 * $50
2 * N * Meet the Spartans * Fox * $21,206,745 * 0% * 2,605 / 0 * $8,140 * $21,206,745 * -
3 * 2 * 27 Dresses * Fox * $16,967,894 * -46.6% * 3,074 / +17 * $5,519 * $48,715,248 * $30
4 * 1 * Cloverfield * Parmt * $15,479,651 * -70.0% * 3,411 / 0 * $4,538 * $67,073,627 * $25

In other words, Cloverfield dropped from first place to fourth place in sales in its second week for a whopping 70% difference from its first week.

That's actual word of mouth doing the talking, as opposed to marketing shills and fanboys trying desperately to justify the huge waste of time they spent on Cloverfraud and its viral marketing campaign.

And those sales don't include the loss of revenue to theater owners who had to issue rain checks to people who left early from vertigo nausea. Let's see how eager they are to book the next film from Paramount or JJ Abrams.

We can see it at IMDb as well. The shill numbers were _huge_ even before the movie premiered in the USA (the power of viral marketing):

8.3 from 2,500 IMDb viewers on 18 Jan 2008 (US premier date)

http://groups.google.com/group/rec....=en&lnk=st&q=cloverfield+8.3#c594a2e11afd1e9f

Now with reviews in from real viewers who paid to see this movie:

7.9 from 36,000 IMDb viewers on 3 Feb 2008

No matter how much the shills try to keep that average up, they can't stop the tide of people who've wasted time and money on this flick and are eager to share their rage.

 

[a1532b]

JTS, those aren't the real numbers! Anyone familiar with J.J. Abrahms knows that the numbers are 4 8 15 16 23 and 42...

 

[Bebob4999]

Here's what I find especially stupid about this movie. Every modern hand-held videocam has some form of built-in image stabilizer. All the videographer has to do is flip a switch to use it. Certainly the Panasonic HVX-200 used in the movie has a very good image stabilizer (MegaOIS). So while current home videos are being made by amateurs with more or less steady images, the "professionals" who made this movie decided to make a large portion of their audience sick with vertigo by acting like they're using a hand-held from the previous century. 🙄

I can assure you that even the most well developed camera's will be bouncing when you are trying to outrun a building tall, agressive monster or a group of man eating, body-explosion causing parasites.😉 I think the camera was somewaht shaky now and then but most of the time the picture was quite good, and the shaky parts added to the panic real good
I think it was fantastic! It's original, to a certain extend believable, not filled with irritating oneliners and humerous comic reliefs which spoiled it's predecessor Godzilla.
The most elements that people critisize on this movie are actually the elements i enjoyed! With respect, but i really think the public is getting a little bit spoiled...

plus, the colverfield overture at the end was awesome:happy: