Cloverfield

[CG]

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.

[Ridureyu]

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

[Pawbah]

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

[Ridureyu]

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.

[Nathander]

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.

[xxxClaire]

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

[Mr. Marshmallow]

Originally Posted by xxxClaire

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

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

[jekylljuice]

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.

[Mr. Marshmallow]

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 pretty much died

, 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.

[jekylljuice]

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 protagonist(s) dies. All Quiet on the Western Front dates back to 1930, after all.