Cloverfield
 

Ever since I saw this trailer last July, I have been dying to see this movie, and after 6 long months, I finally got the chance to see this film, and I have to say, it was simply amazing.

There were some unexpected scenes that I never actually saw coming, the documentary style fits well with this movie, as well as the thrills and suspense it creates.

Overall, this is the best film I have seen in 2008 so far, and I'm looking forward to buying this on DVD,

I plan to try to see it, but I'm not sure what the big deal is with it. I've been hearing people going on about it since last Comic-Con. The commercials don't look terribly interesting, imho. Is it the viral marketing that everyone's going nuts over? :terrconf:

More or less yeah. The teaser trailer left so much mystery and left such a tempting piece of footage for viewers, people ate it up. It really was a genius marketing plan. They didn't show anything except the (now) iconic image of the Liberty statue getting its head knocked off, and didn't even have a title yet.

The fact also the movie was filmed entirely in a video camera semi-documentary version helped the film's creativity. The trailers showed you so little but what little they did show you just sucked people in (me included) and the movie was well worth the cryptic hype behind it. It was an incredibly kick ass film.

Its like a real live Godzilla monster movie that puts you literally behind the camera and sees it from a realistic POV. I highly recommend the hell out of this movie.

I saw it and I liked it. However, right after the film I said to my friend: "Wait a second... this isn't a monster movie, it's a movie about a guy and his girlfriend." I still liked it though.

I work at a theater so I get to hear everyone's reactions. Some people love it, others don't. What is absolutely great is the sheer number of people who get sick while watching it. Almost every show at least one person comes out throwing up. Sometimes more than one. We started giving out popcorn bags as barf bags. So... my work hasn't been the pleasent of places these past few days, but it certainly has been interesting.

Is the nausea due to the handheld camera or like, gore on-screen?

I've read on many websites that people are getting sick because of the hand-held camera technique, and that anyone prone to motion sickness should seriously consider whether they really want to see the movie or not.

If there is any nausea (which I didn't feel any personally), it certainly wouldn't be from the gore because there's hardly any considering its PG-13.

Yeah it's the camera movements. I suggest not buying the nachos, popcorn, ice cream, soda etc while watching this film. Today I watched people go in with a bunch of food and I had the opportunity to see some of it come back out. How is it that someone can walk right past a trash can and then puke on the floor? Sheesh, and then other people walk through it because they aren't paying attention.

Yes, be carfeul you don't have an uneasy stomach when you go. For the sake of all the theater workers, we don't like cleaning up your vomit.

I saw it today and, I have to say, its not what I expected it to be. Either its because of the ending, or the fact that I wasn't emotionally ready for this type of film (gore in large amounts scare me baaad), or...maybe both.

It was different, but not my movie of choice.

In the spirit of Valentine's Day:

Spoiler... I guess...


http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a32...d_lovecopy.png

I'm beginning to really love photoshop.

I must admit I was a bad bad girl and watched this movie online. And I was glad I did, it gave me a chance to pause it, recover my stomach, and re-start it again. I don't think I could have managed it in the cinema either.

Interesting idea, and I know a lot of the 'back story' behind the movie so it helped me enjoy it more but I still wouldn't recomend it to everyone.. for one, my friend Ralinda had to leave the cinema when she saw it.

SInce we already kinda-sorta got this, who wants spoiler pictures? Whooooo wants to see Clovie's face?

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...monstersh9.jpg

Yeah, that's the image I used when I made the poster.

I figured. This isn't an official image, but it's pretty dang close.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...eldcopyhp6.jpg

The size seems somewhat off, though, and I think it has somewhat longer arms. I was actually reminded of Orga a little.

The first time I saw the movie, I was worn out and exhausted, so I wasn't able to truly enjoy it. After seeing it a second time, I was able to enjoy it more. The only real problem is that I basically couldn't be made to care for any of the characters, as all of them, from the way they acted, basically turned out to be morons and/or selfish jerks, who ultimately got what they deserved for their stupid behavior.

I saw it last week. I though it was reaaally awesome. :bloogrin:

Thank god, and here i thought I was the only one ::). Seriously.

I remembered that we did have a thread dedicated to this movie, and thought that now might be a good time for me to contribute something to it. As I said in the Last Movie You Watched Thread, I finally saw this for the first time last night, and having had a bit more time to dwell upon my feelings now, I do think that it had potential as a concept, but that the human element seriously let it down. I think that my main issue here would be that a pretty fundamental plot point - the main characters going back into the damaged city and putting themselves in immense danger on the off-chance that another character might still be alive - felt more like a plot contrivence for the sake of further dragging out the scenario than it did a believable consequence of their characterisation and interactions. They didn't come off as being particularly likeable or engaging characters, and there was very little in what we saw to suggest that they genuinely cared about one another beyond the demands that the story made of them - I dunno, maybe it had something to do with the acting, but there was a real void in this group of characters where you felt some kind of chemistry or heartfelt emotion should have been. All in all, they just didn't strike me as the self-sacrificing type.

Not to be nasty, but personally I think that this might have worked a bit better as one of those simulation theme park rides than as a feature-lengthed movie, wherein it's more acceptable for characterisation to be secondary to jolty thrills. Eh, that's just my opinion.

I did quite like the rats and the horses who showed up here and there. Let's hope that they managed to get out alive somehow.

I think the thing about the characters in this movie is that people seem to misinterpret is that, this was not meant to be like a "movie" movie. The movie is kind of meant to be a sense of realism and in truth, people are by nature really weird and do really weird things. The characters in this movie were meant to be as realistic as possible in the fact they act like real people and not stars.

Truth be told, the fact they all went to find a girl makes sense if you consider it was Rob (main guy's) idea. No one forced the other people to come, they made their choice just like Rob made his choice to go back into the city. No one is saying its the smartest choice but when someone you love is involved, you'd be surprised what people would do.

Be it a child, a pet, a brother, a friend, a lover, a parent, people are not rational or normal when it comes to love. And while yes I admit that by doing this choice and following this path essentially Spoiler Below , everyone in the movie felt content with their choice. They even addressed it with the girl Marlena mentioning about going back for someone.

Like I said this movie felt real to me and less popcorn movie fiction type. I think it also created a very important picture: things in movies do not always turn out the same. We have all seen dozens of movies with people doing heroic things and charges to rescue people, even knowing when the odds are against them and we never think they are stupid because we know how important it means to them. But in those movies, everything ends up okay.

Here they showed us that not everything does turn out okay, the movie showed us even the most noble or decent of intentions will not change nor will it diminish the severity of the consequences. These people made their choice, it was a choice they knew full well of the risks and dangers, they knew what was involved, they knew about the monster, and they went anyway.

If it worked for you, then fair enough. But just to clarify, my point was not that the notion of going back into the city to rescue a loved one in itself was unbelievable, but rather that it didn't feel particularly believable (for me) that these particular characters would do so, except as a means of further extending the story. I just didn't feel that they conveyed the necessary emotion to make such a self-sacrificing act a convincing dimension of their character, whether irrational or not. Cloverfield may have been aiming for that kind of realism, but regardless, the audience still knows that it's fiction, that these are all actors and stuntmen, and that the monster itself is CGI (for obvious reasons, it didn't even have the elbow room that the Blair Witch Project had for temporarily tantalising the audience into believing that it might be real), and so naturally the requirements for creating a successful piece of fiction and convincing the viewers to take it seriously in spite of this knowledge will still apply. We need to be able to care about the characters, and showing things quite literally from their POV, though occasionally effective, is only half the battle. We still need to get a feel of who they are and to be convinced to feel some kind of emotional affinity with them, in order to fully engage with them and to root for them every step of the way. And for me, this where the movie faltered, quite possibly as a result of the performances therein - I just didn't click with any of the cast members, who did little overall to convince me that this was anything more for them than a game of elaborate role-playing, naturally dimishing a good chunk of the potential realism along the way. As I say, if it worked for you, then that's good, but those were just my personal impressions.

Also, though I have a feeling that this wasn't exactly the point you were making, I think it's worth pointing out that Cloverfield is hardly ground-breaking in its approach to its conclusion. Admittedly it did feel somewhat refreshing when contrasted with typical Hollywood cop-out standards, but there is nonetheless a very long tradition of movies in which Spoiler Below

The conclusion thing wasn't my point at all actually.

As a matter-of-fact, I got this in the mail a few days ago from Columbia House. After watching it, I gotta definitely praise it for its uniqueness in its form and ending as well as using an original monster design.

To be honest, I liked the way it was presented by camera view, since it made you feel more like you were there and experiencing everything they were.

And it's kinda strange. I'm usually prone to motion sickness, but I didn't feel so much as a bit of nausea when I was watching it.

Anyway, it was a great movie and I'm glad I saw it.