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01/20/2008: X-E loves Cloverfield!

WARNING: CLOVERFIELD SPOILERS BELOW AND IN COMMENTS. READ AT YOUR OWN CLOVERISK.

I adored it. Absolutely adored it. You know, it’s one of those things where you can hear the arguments “against” coming from a mile away, and thought you can’t really refute them, you just don’t care. An opinion is just that, and I say with all sincerity that Cloverfield is one of my favorite films in a long, long time, and among my favorite moviegoing experiences ever.

I could’ve given you this review last Tuesday, as I was fortunate enough to see an early press screening. I just really wanted to see it again before saying anything, because I went into that first viewing with sky-high expectations set from months of crazy hype, and because, frankly, seeing a movie like this in a relatively stuffy “press screening atmosphere” robbed it of some of its punch. Yesterday, I saw it with regular folks and without those prayers for the impossible created by months of daydreaming, and Christ, this may be the first movie since Burton’s Batman that I see more than twice in theaters.

Is it a perfect movie? Fuck no. It’s not even a revolutionary experience in the same way The Blair Witch Project was. But it’s damn effective: It’s fun, it’s funny, it’s scary, it’s brutal, it’s big, and it’s a bona fide experience. I think you’d have to go into this with an extremely contrary-prone mind to not at least leave feeling like you just experienced something. You can’t just “watch” Cloverfield.

What surprised me is how I liked it for entirely different reasons than I expected. I didn’t expect to really care about the characters as anything more than devices, but here I am, ready to proclaim Hud and Marlena as two of my favorite movie characters ever. And I can’t even explain why. I really can’t. But something about both of those characters makes me know that I’m going to be forever loyal to the actors that played them, even if the remainder of their careers are filled with bad choices and awful roles. I’ll forever root for them.

Course, Cloverfield is going to be weighed by the effectiveness of the monster and the destruction said monster caused. Overall, I was totally impressed by the creature. I’m one of the many thousands of fans who spent months trying to come up with a rough estimation of what the monster was going to look like, and it was absolutely 100% different from any of the popular theories. Truth be told, it’s nearly impossible to describe what you saw without the aid of photos. (Photos and clips have already made their way online, but I don’t want to be that kind of spoiler guy.)

The best monster scenes are the ones where we don’t get an amazingly clear view of it, and fortunately, those account for all but one of the creature’s appearances. When they finally make good on their vow to show it clearly near the end of the film, you can sense that they’re doing it begrudgingly: It looks cool and badass, but the overall effect is nothing compared to earlier shots of the semi-obscured beast lumbering around/past/straight through buildings. During the scene where our heroes have to cross roofs between damaged skyscrapers, Hud points the camera down the long avenue, and we see the monster more or less in full, plodding down the streets as jets bomb it to all fuck. The shot was just gorgeous. Not like I wasn’t going to anyway, but I’d totally get the DVD just for the opportunity to screencap that shot and make it my desktop wallpaper for the next year.

As for the mini-monsters (the “parasites” that drop off the big guy), viewer opinion seems to be split. I’d agree that the spider-like things could’ve stood to be a bit less derivative of some of wacky creatures we’ve already seen in other movies and video games, but then, we don’t know the whole story. It could be that they’re totally natural sea parasites mutated by drawing blood from this possibly-alien creature, and that’s a fucking awesome concept. The beauty about Cloverfield even at this late stage is that so much stuff is left wide open for interpretation. I know that a lot of people wish they were given more solid answers, but I’m so glad we weren’t. When you know all there is to know, there isn’t much left to think about. Right now, there is, and this film’s lore is a heck of a lot of fun to think about.

I got off-track: The mini-monsters were a welcome addition. As insane as the main creature was, New York City is a big place: A second threat that could turn up anywhere was almost a necessity. The smaller creatures may have seemed more pestilent than horrific, but considering that their bites cause people to explode, they really upped the film’s surrealistic nature.

Not knowing exactly what happened at the end was…well, it was exactly what the movie called for. Aside from the added benefit of being able to leave the movie feeling as though the monster was still destroying everything in sight, the door is open for future stories, whether they come by way of a sequel, comics or some screwy viral website. It’s left us wanting to know more, but in a way that will help avoid needing to retcon anything we’ve already seen or heard.

I’ve been reading a ton of fan reviews, and for all the people that loved it, there are plenty who hated it. I can understand why someone might feel a bit let down: The hype was so tremendous, and if I was being honest, all of the trailers and promos pointed to a movie with a far scarier tone than Cloverfield actually had. But isn’t it more fair to judge the film based on what we were given, rather than on what we might’ve been teased with? When I force myself to do that, I am beyond satisfied. I can’t wait to see it again, and I’m salivating over the prospects of what the future may hold. The film has done tremendous business so far, so we’re definitely poised to get more of the story in some form.

For now, I’ll just have fun theorizing about what’s what and what’s not, and imagining horrible and awesome events every time I go into work and look up at the big buildings. I believe that a film that can serve as such a fantasy catalyst is a different kind of success, and any faults I can find with Cloverfield are totally eradicated by the fact that it’s one of the few pieces of entertainment in recent memory that’s really got me dreaming again.

I could go on and on in circles and ovals, but I’ll stop here…except for a few small points about the movie, after the jump. Just want to point out a couple of things you may have missed or been confused about if you saw Cloverfield without any pre or post research…

More than one giant monster?
There’s been a lot of speculation that more than a single monster attacked, explaining its ability to turn up in vastly different locations from one seeming moment to the next, and the fact that it seemed to look a little bit different in each of the scenes it was in. I don’t personally believe that this was the case, but I do think that it may end up being the case later. If/when there is a sequel — even if it’s simply another group’s tape of the same events — I’d put money on there being more than one monster. Intentionally or not, they’ve laid the groundwork for it, and it was really fun to watch the film for a second time with that perspective in mind. There’s a lot in support of it even in spite of the evidence against.

Did you see it?
At the very end of the film, when it cuts to Rob and Beth in Coney Island, the establishing shot of the ocean hides a subtle secret. Look close at the boat at the bottom right of the screen, and you’ll notice something shoot down and splash into the water, like a meteor. It’s extremely subtle: I didn’t see it in my first viewing, and would not have noticed it the second time if I hadn’t read about it first.

Without going into too much detail on the viral campaign, this object could be one of four things. The first option: It’s the monster itself arriving on earth a month before its grand debut in NYC. Option 2: It’s a piece of a satellite crashing into the ocean, which could be nothing more than a nod to fans who’ve followed the viral stuff. Option 3: It’s a piece of the satellite with the monster attached to it; a satisfying answer both for those who followed the campaign and those who didn’t. Option 4: A meaningless red herring.

If the true answer was obvious, we wouldn’t be discussing it, so don’t bet on anyone coming forward with a tell-all just yet. As with some of the other debatable plot points, I think they’ve done a terrific job of covering their tracks so that any future answers given won’t necessarily contradict what we’ve already seen.

Poor Marlena
If you’ve followed Cloverfield, this will come as no surprise, but if you just saw the movie on a whim, you might’ve missed the point. Though some people suspect that the “infected” Marlena was shot behind the curtain as a matter of “containment” during the scene in the makeshift hospital full of Hazmat suits, the silhouette you saw actually depicts Marlena’s stomach rapidly expanding before exploding.

So, the running theory is that being bit by one of the spider-esque creatures delivers a foreign toxin which reacts very badly with human physiology, turning what might’ve normally been a poisonous death sentence into something far more visual. There’s some speculation that being bit causes a person to give birth to another mini-monster, but there’s no solid proof to support that, nor was there enough commotion behind the curtain to suggest that a mini-monster leapt from Marlena’s stomach to attack anyone. Still, if any sequels or extended lore dared to add that in as fact, we couldn’t really contradict it with the vague answers we received.

Shhhhhh.
At the end of the credits, there’s a small bit of whispering. If you play that whisper backwards, it sounds like Rob (or possibly someone else) saying, “it’s still alive.” Yay!

I’m curious to hear what you guys thought. And yes, you’re allowed to hate the film…if you really want to.

Great review. I absolutely loved the movie and after following it since July, I wasn’t let down in the least.

Following the viral campaign was interesting and provided some answers that weren’t in the movie, but once I got into the theater, I pretty much forgot all about it until I saw the Slusho shirt again and Jamie on the couch - that made me smile. I also hear that you can see the Tagruato logo on an ship or something, but I missed it on my first viewing.

Now, all I can think about are what kind of features we’ll be getting on the DVD. This may be the movie that makes me invest in home theater surround sound because seeing in the theater is such a good experience and watching it at home may never replicate that sadly.

Eric: Yeah, the Tag logo was very hard for me to spot in theaters, but I’ve seen still pictures, and it’s there. (Also, the guy in charge of Tag was supposed to be in NY during the time of the movie, so on a stretch, we can assume that he died in the oil tanker….maybe.)

They have the means to create a really, really great DVD. Just including the stuff of the Chuai station being blown apart (Google around to find out what I’m taliking about) would be terrific.

I was a little disappointed, but I’m sure hyped up movies will do that no matter what, but it was definitely an experience. I got to the theater early because I was sure it would be packed (it wasn’t) and when a group of 13 year olds sat behind me, I moved to the darkest farthest region of the theater. I didn’t like the monster much. It didn’t have Godzilla’s charisma and I wish it wasn’t tan color. I wish it was more frog-like, since it would be an amphibian. I thought the lice it had looked like its babies, and I feel that when a giant monster movie uses smaller monsters, it’s cheating. Mostly cause I’m bitter that Marlena died. I’m not so upset that so little was revealed because A) You are seeing this through a regular guy’s POV and B) You learn a lot about the movie through the internet (like how Slusho is made with sea nectar which the monster wants, and Rob works for the Slusho company) and C) The sequel is totally inevitable and will probably answer more questions and raise more of them.

Very bleak movie. I liked the ending because you realize that just a few weeks ago all of these people were happy, and they all did something important before they died (except Jason. Poor Jason.) Opinions are totally polarized. As I left the theater, my friends were going bananas about it, and a lot of people were like “WORST MOVIE EVER” or “It was okay until the ending.” As far as monster movies go, Cloverfield is definitely amongst the best.

Those YouTube videos? Exactly. There’s so much content from all aspects of the viral campaign. Give us a good two-disc set with that, commentary, deleted scenes, and behind-the-scenes featurettes and I’ll be happy. Haha - I even framed the note from The Whistle Blower that came with my Slusho hat, so I’m a bit obsessed.

The only thing - and it’s nitpicking at it’s highest - I just didn’t like that the movie happened in the spring. All of the viral campaigning let us to think that the events happened on January 18. The press release for Ganu’s visit to New York was in January too, so was he really there when it happened? We don’t know.

After reading through I’ve decided I can’t wait for this to come out on DVD. This seems like the type of movie that Absolutly has to be seen in theaters.

So i am refraining from commenting again until later tonight. i am going to go see cloverfield with the fiancee at around 9, so i have a double whammy of awesome for later tonight: cloverfield and then a cloverfield post to read. I = a happy Leigha

I head the director say the “sequel” is gonna be from the same monster attack, but from the pov of someone else’s camera.

I was planning to see Cloverfield opening night since July, but I came down with walking pneumonia, so I won’t be seeing it for at least another week.

That said, Matt’s multiple monsters theory might be correct. The 1-18-08 website just put up a new photo in the last day or so showing huge animals with chunks bitten out of them washed up on a beach… and last time I checked, whales don’t have horns.

Yeah. Great stuff. I’m actually surprised that most people seem to really like it. I figured there’d be plenty of folks who hated it based on the non-ending alone.

I saw Cloverfield at a 3pm matinÃ©e on Friday, and I absolutely loved it. I’ve been seriously hyped about it, and avoiding any and all spoilers since I saw the preview for it prior to the Transformers movie. I’ve even avoided X-E for the last week or so, just in case. I actually succeeded for the most part, and I think my experience was better for it.

I’d like to go back and check out the viral marketing now that I’ve safely seen it, though. Can anyone show me where to start, or at least point me to a overview/recap sort of page?

Not planning to see Cloverfield, except possibly maybe after it’s been out on DVD for a while… I know that to many of you, that might seem like heresy, but I seem to be one of the minority of those who post on this site, who is not a big fan of monster/disaster movies.

Just one question, since it will doubtless be many months before I potentially see this movie: what is the origin of the word “Cloverfield” as used in this movie? And did anyone watch last week’s episode of “Psych” on USA Network, where the villain-of-the-week’s name was “Mrs. Cloverfield”?

Old Jim: Its the name of the street that JJ Abrams office is on, Dissapointing I know..

I’m with you, Matt. The movie wasn’t a movie to me. I’ve been following hype and viral sites and messageboards for months. Spoilers mean nothing to me. I just want to know. And my friends made fun of me after the movie because I was sitting forward, literally on the edge of my seat. Biting my nails. Cloverfield made me so stressed out. I FELT the emotion the Rob felt.

And did anyone pay attention to the music that was playing during Rob’s party? Holy shit. The entire tracklist is in my blog (linked in my name). But Spoon, Coconut Records, Architecture in Helsinki, Kings Of Leon, Ratatat….I’m way way impressed. Indie cred out the ass.

Oh, and Matt, I’m not sure if you’ve heard/read/got the heads up, but I read that they fully intend on making a TOY/FIGURE of the monster.

awesome…I really thought this movie would be SO bad especially after all the hype…but after reading this..and a few other reviews if anything I’m very curious to see it…I didn’t even particularly enjoy the blair witch project so…am I going to be disappointed?

Ehhhh I gotta say I just don’t see myself going to see Cloverfield. I’ve seen the trailers a couple times, and I dunno, I guess I just didn’t take the bait.

Cloverfield was everything I expected it to be and more. Absolutely beautiful. The pacing, the graphics, the characters…I loved it all.

But of course, there were others in the theater who were griping about the film. These are the same sort of folks, mind you, whom I hear touting the cinematic brilliance of Jackass The Movie and rabidly clamoring for a sequel to Dude, Where’s My Car? Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but for some people the movie going experience can be summed up thusly:
What I’ve seen before\am comfortable with: Good
Mindless entertainment: Very Good
Anything new and original: Bad
Movies that make me think: On par with the holocaust

But enough ranting. Cloverfield rules and I hope they add all the viral stuff to the DVD.

oooh…kind of perfect timing. I am on my way to see this right now. And THEN I will read up and comment up etc.

I read the first paragraph and then skipped the rest of the article and the thread. I was supposed to go see this movie yesterday, but the friend I had with hadn’t seen Sweeney Todd yet. And, truth be told, talking me into seeing that film again was shamefully easy.

Anyway, I think I’ll watch Cloverfield tomorrow after lunch so that I can go back to enjoying the Internet without guarding myself against spoilers.

Saw it last night. Loved it. I only went because it was more of an “event” than a movie. I like to be part of the pop culture happenings. Then…it was a freaking great suspenseful, terrifying film! I was pretty happy with it. My only complaint is the witty comments in times of terror, and the utter cheesy lines when they go back for Beth…that’s it. I loved the way it was shot, and see this as a real future of film, both with the viral marketing and the camcorder feel.

(POSSIBLE SPOILER)Also, there appears to be some debate as to whether the new pic on 1-18-08.com shows the remains of a monster, or of a whale. Thoughts, anyone?

Personally, I think they depict the/a monster of some sort. Then again, there are bite marks on it…

I also think the pictures (other than the first few) depict events that have happened AFTER the movie. If you go through them one by one, they seem to tell the story of a monster who attacks the city, which is then followed by the world’s retaliation. If this is the case, though, how does Chuai (sp?) fit in?

I live in downtown Toronto, and I have only seen one Cloverfield ad (in a theatre, just a regular poster). What was this viral ad campaign that everyone speaks of? Should I be watching more TV?

I saw it twice and definitely enjoyed it both times, but i just found it so damn depressing. The second time I saw it I actually dreaded seeing Jason die and really didn’t want to see the ending again, especially after realizing that the last line and one of the first lines in the film are almost the same, it just makes it one of the saddest movies I’ve seen…..ever…

and just in case anyone is confused, they would definitely not nuke NYC with the hammer down, so there is still a chance Rob and Beth could still be alive.
Also, at the end of the credits many think sound clip played normally says “Help us” (with the backwards being “It’s still alive.”)

PS: I only mention Toronto because about a month ago the whole city was swamped with frickin’ Walk Hard billboards at every intersection. I definitely NEVER want to see it because I’m so sick of that stupid guy posing like Jim Morrison and his stupid face.

This looks like one of those movies I’ll be waiting to catch at the dollar theatre. I’m a cheap bastard, but I do so hate being left out of something huge. I pretty much ignored everything about it (I skimmed over most of this post, actually) so I’ll be going in pretty blind. Should be entertaining.

My only gripe was the beginning… all the gossip and drama at the party. I kept waiting for it to end. I felt like it dragged on too long, but I guess in hindsight it set the movie up pretty well.

Overall, I thought it was really good though. I left satisfied! In my opinion though, the smaller “monsters” were scarier than the big monster.

I’m with Mystie I don’t think I bought it. But having a great theater experience is pretty tempting. I have a force field that I have built myself to protect myself from clever marketing to put their hands in my pockets so I think that is what happened this movie’s hype got deflected from my force field. Unfortunately I don’t think you’ll see me very much around this thread.

I already have my cult movie, I guess. I still love Snakes on a Plane, so that marketing stuffs certainly worked.

What surprised me is how I liked it for entirely different reasons than I expected.
I felt the same way! I really thought that I might find myself barely caring about the characters and waiting for the story to turn back to the monster, but it was so far from that. I cared about every last one of them, so the end was sad, but I still expected it. Didn’t the found footage aspect kind give the end away anyway? Just me? (Until now it hadn’t occurred to me that they might not really do the Hammerdown…I have to catch up on all the viral stuff now!)
I mentioned in the last thread that I didn’t spot any of the LOST references that were supposedly in there…but I did think that Hud shared a certain everyman charm with one Hugo Reyes. That scene as they were going down the stairs, and he was talking about the really terrible things? That was totally channeling Hurley

I thought the monster was perfectly scary. I expected not to see too much of it (based on 3 seasons of the LOST monster) but I didn’t think they ended up being coy about it. My favorite shot of the monster had to be the one where it came flying out of the rubble to knock the helicopter out of the air…so badass. As for the little monsters…maybe not as scary-looking as the ones in The Mist, but they were still creepier because the CGI was better, and then there’s the fact that if they bite you you’ll EXPLODE.
Anybody catch the Cloverfield gag on this week’s The Soup? Not quite as funny as the Grindhouse strawberry margarita gag from last year, but still cute.

I fucking loved the movie. It’s been a real long time since I’ve been to ANY film on opening night, and I doubt I’ll ever do that again due to the theater being filled with bored high-school students all screaming and throwing things (It made me feel old, honestly). My favorite part of the whole experience was the very end when 3/4ths of the audience stood up yelling “BULLSHIT!!!” and throwing their popcorn at the screen in anger.

For me and the wife though, BEST SHIT EVER. The Star Trek tease made me absolutely hard as well. Cannot wait for more background story, as I never paid any attention to the viral stuff.

Is there a website with a catalog of all of the viral information? Like a Cloverfield Wiki or something? Cause I still have no idea why the hell the movie is even called “Cloverfield”. Is it a reference to Central Park, or what?

There is a Wiki for Clover, which can be found here. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask…I should know the answers! Regarding the title, I don’t think we’ve been given any clear indication as to why it’s called that. (Outside of there being a street named Cloverfield out by the studio or something.)

Colquitt, was the Star Trek teaser really that exciting? I thought that was the only disappointing part of the whole experience. Maybe if I was interested in Star Trek outside of this newest incarnation I would have found it more interesting.
So I was about to speculate on “Why Cloverfield?” but I think I’ll go read the Wiki first so I don’t make an idiot out of myself by being totally off. I can’t wait to go see the movie again

I don’t know if anybody’s seen it yet, but apparently a shit ton of people went to see this movie. It broke a January record with over $40 million dollars.

And i loved the ending, although it was a downer. But c’mon, it’s a monster destroying NYC. Did you really expect it to end on a happy, i’m-glad-we’re-alive type of ending? It was realistic.

I had absolutely no interest in the new Star Trek film until I saw that trailer…then I got goosebumps.

Eh, the movie wasn’t anything special.Nothing bad but certainly far less entertaining than even the worst Godzilla movie…..well maybe not the worst, better than that.The monster of course is nothing special, it looks like a giant killer blue whale or something.The idea of the crab parasites was a good one, though, and something never really done in a giant monster flick before(barring the american Godzilla movie of course, but that wasn’t done nearly as well), so that’s something at least.

So funny that I’ve done a 180, for the Advent Calender I was into the viral and clues, and for Cloverfield I missed most of it and went in knowing only that it was a monster movie where the monster was a surprise. And yet despite being an outsider to all the hype I loved the movie. I was kinda dreading it following the typical plot, bore me for a half hour trying to get me to care about the characters, then show a bunch of CGI shots of a monster and then watch a bunch of normal people somehow stop a powerful monster. Instead it deviated and made me love it. I love that we never got a great shot of the monster. Personally I think its a spider type of monster that can stand on two of the six legs and the other four arms are actual arms like Goro from Mortal Kombat. I had almost hoped that the movie would end when the copter was attacked because it would be much more realistic if it really was just a tape from people who were killed instead of the typical average joe becomes hero movie but luckly it stayed that way. They have to make a sequel to this and actually it sets up perfect for like a five or six movie series. The first one was great and gave away nothing. They could easily do a sequel where its all new characters and they actually show the monster, then another movie where they explain its origin, then another where they start to figure out how to fight it and another where they have a final battle. And normally I hate being a fan boy, saying what they should do next but this movie stays so wide open that its hard not to.

The only thing I would disagree with Matt about is the attachment to the characters, I liked them all but more in a Friday the 13th or Elmstreet way where I rooted for them for this movie but the overall love was for the franchise which was the bad guy. If the next movie made no mention of these characters and instead focused on teh people who found the tape I would be totally fine with that. Maybe its because I had no viral love, that I’m in it for the monster and the mystery and not really Rob or Hud. I also loved how they threw out a few different origins but never said which one. JJ is just a superb storyteller and its a shame that so many artists restrict themselves to the same old tired and true way to make a buck because he has shown the way to make entertainment an actual artform.

I read that it was called Cloverfield because that was the military’s codename for a mass attack scenario

The one thing I left out of my love filled rant about Cloverfield was that I LOVED LOVED LOVED that they made it without a “star” actor. It made it so much more real since I had never seen them before and knew them only as the movie presented them.

Great Review, as I’ve already said, I loved the film.
Looking forward to more story possibly told in comics or something (there is already a Manga being produced)
Definitely going to get the DVD.

Glad to see you back Matt! I was starting to worry that you had pulled a Hemingway. I hope the monster is at least as scary as the giant bunny at the end of the advent calender. Because I still cant go back and look at that scene! makes me feel like Im having a flashback.

Hi, I still haven’t seen the movie yet…nor have I read most of the comments, fearing spoilage. Perhaps I should skip this thread until I actually see it?

Not much more that I can add, other than I too enjoyed it and completely agree with the idea that is was another “must see in a theater” experience. The only bad part was, as usual, or local audience. No one -NO ONE- in our town ever is educated about the movie they are going to see. One person screamed out “I was jipped” and “that sucked” and started a brief group of other idiots shouting out there comments. What were they expecting? Did they think the movie would be another ‘Will Smith fights the aliens’ type movie and be nothing like the trailers?

Other than that, great fun was had; glad so many people seem to be enjoying it as well. And the Star Trek trailer was just enough to get those old geek juices flowing again….

You should, because I do plan on spoiling some stuff. Before I do, I would like to say: Hooray, Matt’s alive! The movie was so freaking intense. Some of the stuff Hud said reminded me of myself, even the “annoying” things. Because of that, I found him to be a much more likable character and occasionally I forgot I was watching a movie and not running through New York, away/toward a giant monster.

Spoiler time!
There was a scene where I thought the monster was an enormous T-Rex. Seriously. It looked long and thing, and even had the stubby arms. Smoke and mirrors?

In Hud’s final farewell of sorts, when you get to see the monster’s face, two characters came to my mind: Voldemort from Harry Potter and the Kraken from Clash of the Titans. So slap that head on a mega version of the thing from The Host… That’s what I thought it looked like. With backwards hand-feet. =P

As I said I was one of the un-initiated masses, in that I didn’t follow the pre movie hype and I loved it. Anyone who hated this movie should be forced to watch horrible movies for the rest of their lives.

Sorry about the downtime over the past few hours. Hey, if anyone’s using IE, please let me know if the blog loads properly. Thanks!

got a nosebleed before we left for the movie, and it didnt stop for nearly an hour. needless to say, i didnt go see it yet, but i did read the article, and now want to see it more.

Maybe, as Hud speculated, a “creVASSE… CREvasse” was jarred open — by the meteor/satellite Matt spotted in the Coney Island footage?? — but perhaps the monster and its monsterlings were from the Center of the Earth of lore! Their limbs were very adaptable to walking around.

Any which way — whether they’re from outer space, ocean depths, or subterranean caverns — they probably should have had an adverse reaction to daylight, though that would have been a lame Achilles’ heel dramatically speaking.

Why did the monsters just bite people and leave their corpses pretty much fully intact? I guess an incubation scenario would explain this, but again, it would be too rote for J.J. Abrams.

I don’t think Rob and Beth lived, because if they had, they would have taken the camera with them.

I liked Cloverfield… a lot. If you noticed in the scene where the girl is taken behind the sheet and explodes… a soldier can be seen being pushed on a stretcher with a blown out tummy as well. There can’t be baby monsters that come out of the people, or we would have seen fighting behind the sheet. The theory that there are two monsters is very interesting. The scene at the end with the meteor, was rumored to be a satellite from the company the main dude was going to Japan to work for. It “woke” the monster up, but I guess that is only a theory. Great movie.

geez Hud was probably onscreen for 2 minutes but there was something so real about him. Everyone liked him. Everyone felt for him when Marlena died. Everyone was bummed out when he died.

I agree with you, I thought showing the monster at the end was a bad idea. It really cheapened the whole thing robbed it a bit from it’s rawness. Overall though I agree, one of the coolest concepts and films I’ve seen in a while. I can’t stop thinking/talking about it.

Have you watched “Carpoolers”? The guy who played Hud is in that hand he’s awesome.

Cloverfield was a good movie. I saw both I Am Legend and Cloverfield nearly back to back and I’d have to say Cloverfield wins, hands down.

I had some strong disagreements with some of the storytelling in the movie (Manhattan is huge, so why do our heroes always end up RIGHT NEXT to the monster the entire movie?) but from a movie experience, it was the only way the story could be told and be entertaining.

If you haven’t seen it yet, don’t expect a big ‘thinker’ movie, turn your brain off and enjoy the ride.

I knew CLOVERFIELD was going to be some kind of monster in NYC, and just as I suspected: there were some very compelling moments …

But action and special effects just aren’t enough for me any more. I know the best way to generate terror is by letting the audience imagine it themselves — so I didn’t expect them to explain EVERYTHING … but the fact that they don’t explain ANYTHING really felt like a cop-out. If I wasn’t going to get an explanation, then I at least wanted to be totally freaked out. Unfortunately, I wasn’t.

I guess I can see how this movie would hit New Yorker’s a lot harder. And I must admit that the shot of the stealth bomber dropping bombs into the city was …. chilling. That’s the shot I’ll remember from this movie.

Hello, long time fan, first time responding.
Honestly, I liked the movie; I just wasn’t fond of the fact that the movie gets you attached to a set of characters only to systematically kill them off… In the most brutal ways possible.
(Sigh) I guess I’m just to apathetic.

Just got back from seeing the flick. Good. Lord. Greatest movie EVER! Even with douche bags talking throughout the film, I am thoroughly pleased with the decision I made tonight.

i hate to be a grammar nazi…but apathetic would mean you don’t give a sh*t about the characters…perhaps empathetic is the word you are looking for

Well, speaking as (probably?) the first to complain of motion-sickness, I really had a problem w/ the party scene cuz it dragged a bit (only a bit) too long so that I had to use the few downtimes in the movie to just close my eyes and listen (which made for a great radio drama).

Sickness aside, I didn’t keep up w/ the viral marketing cuz by the time things got rolling, I was far too behind. The real meat for me was the monster. I don’t know about anyone elese, but after seeing the toy first, then seeing the thing MOVE was a horror to behold. I mean, its on all-fours almost the entire time, while I assumed it would be a Godzilla beast on 2 legs.

To that end, I have to disagree w/ people who say it wasn’t as original as other city-stomper-monsters. I mean, the feet, the way the arms assist movement, the face, those weird potuberances you see at the end; if there was ever a “real” chimaera, this beast is it. And despite the different parts that made it up, it still moved convincingly and behaved in a way I never could have imagined. The creature was the best part of the movie, even more than the parasite cast-offs, which were most effective w/ the night-vision sequence. O_O BEST REVEAL ever.

Not explaining ANYTHING makes for excellent conversation, even w/ the theories that there may be more than one beast. For the first time, we know only what the characters know. I like that. I knew that I would know about as much as I knew going into it, and that was just fine. That’s what sequels and the marketing are for. I just wish Marlena was a bit less bleh; I thought she was, as “How to Survive a Horror Movie” book calls it, the “Audience Pleasing Kill”.

I tend to think most of us don’t read the extra long posts, so I apologize for the length, but I really needed to get that all off my chest.

Also: I was the only one in my group who saw the splash in the last scene. I can’t believe I was the only one who caught it. I’m glad to see it wasn’t another “You’re making up Today’s Special” kinda situation.

Cloverfield could probably destroy the Stay Puffed Marshmellow Man. It would be freakin close.

Yeah great review… it’s was one helluva ride… the best scene was when they got attacked by the little bastards… I never yelled so loud in a movie theater ever!

I liked it, but about halfway through some lady threwup in the row in front of us. Nothing like popcorn barf to kill the vibe a bit.

Fell a little below my expectations, actually. I wish the love story was somehow … not a love story. It just took away so much of the film for me. ANYTHING would have been better then him sacrificing his life (AND 2 other people!!!!!) to get some chick he banged once. Come on.

Tk00022, Rob didn’t sacrifice his buddies at all. Many times throughout the film he tried to get them to go to safety and to let him continue on alone. They willingly chose to go along.

I LOVED THE WHOLE DAMN THING!!! The scene where all those people come out and start taking pictures of Lady Liberty’s head with their cellphone cameras…freakin’ genius. Also the way Hud keeps filming the news about the monster on TV while the destruction is happening just outside…I could go on and on…self-absorbed people making bad decisions repeatedly during a crisis-I’m amazed they survived as long as they did!! Definitely the coolest theater experience in a loooong time! I also followed the online stuff since the summer and there were lots of cool references throughout! For all you Alias fans, the number 47 even put in an appearance! Seein’ it again tonight…

Tk00022, one way to look at it is if Rob hadn’t told everyone to stop while he took the call from Beth, they would all have been dead anyway.

So does anybody read Japanese? Thanks to another website I found a link to the manga prequel online. Click my name, then click the blue “OPEN” box if you’re interested. It’s all in Japanese except for the credits page.

is the movie really that good? i’ve been curious to see the(then untitled)film since i saw the previews for it back in july,before ‘transformers’.nevertheless,people do seem quite divided on it…some of you are practically creaming yourselves over the movie(did any of you “cloverfield” acolytes come to orgasm over it? lol.)yet some of the other posters on here are much less enthused.i wonder which camp i’ll fall into? indeed,i may sound ignorant here or not up on my geek speak,but what is this ”viral information” or whatever thats being referred to? sometimes i feel like i’m out of the loop!

haven’t seen it. I actually don’t know if I will, to be honest. I don’t see many movies in theatres. We usually just get the DVD.
I have also not been catching the marketing either- the first trailers I saw for it were in the past week and they haven’t grabbed my attention.
Which is kind of a bummer for me- Something that X-E Loves and I can’t seem to get into it. Oh well.

Skimming through the above comments, made me think of the bit in Stephan King’s The Body where after telling his story about Lardass Hogan, Gordy is ragged on by Vern and Teddy for not having a pat ending. I am going to see it a soon as possible, but there is one thing I want to say about the Queasy-cam technique: most digital cameras have soem sort of image stabilization feature. Some of these guys, both in movies and in real life, could sorely benifit from turning it on.

Considering some of what’s been said, my speculation before going to see the film is that the monster is a composite creature, like Cell, Serpentor, or even Zeiram. So by itself, it really is more than one monster

The creature with the bite taken out is a sperm whale. Look at the one on the left, you’re looking at the front of the whale. Big bite taken out of its head, and its mouth is wide open.

Cloverfield was great, for anyone with tons of lingering questions the IMDB FAQ of Cloverfield has nicely compiled a lot of good stuff, including a screen capture of the “something falling into the ocean”.

Did anyone else get a bout of “sea sickness” during the film? My wife and I sat close but not too close, and she had to leave halfway through. With that aside, good flick. Also, the narwhale I believe has a unicorn-like horn, but the whale in the pic is a spermwhale as someone has pointed out.

From Wikipedia: Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use preexisting social networks to produce increases in brand awareness, through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily.

A very good movie to go to with friends. It was just brilliant! The monster kicked ass. I will make a full review later. But listen(or more likely, read) my voice kind of sucks cause Im sick and it sounds kind of young. I will post a link later.

I have to say…as a 100% lifelong lover of all things X-E and a 99.9% supporter of every single thing written on this site I’m going to say this is the one thing I COMPLETELY disagree with.

I don’t mean this to sound exagerated in the slightest…Cloverfield is the worst movie I have ever seen in my whole life time of bad movie experiences. Infact, dare I say that if I set out to write a horrible movie, I couldn’t make one as bad as Cloverfield even intentionally. I went to see it on a Saturday night and word must have already gotten out because there were only about 15 people in the theater who were all in LOUD verbal agreement that we had just had 8 dollars stolen from us that we’ll be writing JJ Abrhams to get back.

The movie was nauseating, poorly acted, and lacking in any kind of even semi reasonable plot. I know people will argue that viral marketing explains things, or whatever. Fact is, the majority of people who will view this movie haven’t watched all that and will be leaving massively dissapointed. My prediction for this film, is that undeservingly this film will see a sequal within the next year. Because after completely stealing the Blair Witch formula. Hollywood has taken a movie filmed for what looked to be about a $10 budget and at least for its opening night (before word spread) made millions in return. Which they will use to fund next years god awful scam sequal. A new word needs to be invented for how bad this movie was.

Just got back from a showing of “Cloverfield.” My fiancee and I absolutely loved it. We went in hoping to see a good monster movie, and that’s exactly what we saw. I’ve read reviews that complained about the shaky camera, the seemingly idiotic 20-something cast, and the fact that it’s all been done before. Those reviewers are just trying to make the movie out to be more than it actually is: dumb fun.

I didn’t really follow the hype, but I think it’s part of what the movie actualy is: a bunch of scared people wanting to know exactly what it is they’re scared of. For months, people only had glimpses of what the monster was. It wasn’t so much “what does the monster look like” but “what is causing this to happen.”

And as far as the camerawork, we felt immersed in the action by it. If it was done like any other type of movie, sure the cinematography would have looked great, but would it have had that sense of fear. The scene in the subway tunnel would not have been as effective if the camerawork was all polished up.

Personally, I’m going to love it when I head into work in NYC tomorrow, looking up at buildings wondering if I’m going to see a giant tail disappear behind one of them. I may have to see this flick again.

Mother of God, that is one awesome toy.
I talked to my buddy again to see if his opinion on the movie improved with some time to reflect…He’s now dubbed it “Queasyfield” so I took that as a no…I had been half-considering getting him the Slusho hat as a gag, but that probably wouldn’t go over too well. Once I explained what “Slusho” is it wouldn’t, anyway.

Ok I admit I was totally into the viral campaign for Box 23 as well but didn’t get into for this movie. Even without the background info I still enjoyed the hell out of it. I saw it by myself but have sucesfully talked my wife into wanting to see it as well so I can go back and look for all the things I missed the first time. But I do have to ask Matt since you put the offer out, what was the connection with Slusho?

Slusho is a somewhat longstanding side thing with JJ Abrams stuff, pushed to a new degree for Cloverfield. Disregarding its roots since it was treated like a new artifact for this movie, Slusho is a popular Japanese drink, like a Slurpee, created with special “deep sea nectar.” This nectar is dug up by Tagruato, a deep sea drilling corporation run by people who may or may not be trying to destroy the planet.

Speculation was that Tagruato woke the monster up while looking for the stuff, which it lived on, and the reason it came to NYC was because it wanted more of it. There were a hundred other theories of equal worth; that’s just one of them.

One thing’s for sure, though: According to his official MySpace profile, Rob (the main character) was going to work for the Slusho company in Japan. That’s why he was leaving. :O

At this stage, I’d say it’s more likely that Slusho will just become a JJ trademark for most/all of what he does, Clover or not.

No prob, though I suspect I wasn’t much help! Click here to visit the official Slusho site.

I saw it last night and I really liked it, but couldn’t put my finger on why I did. Unlike others, I knew very very little about the film before I saw it, I followed none of the hype. After seeing the movie I was talking with three others who had seen it and they were are talking the logistics of it all. But I think it’s one of those films that you cannot argue about, you just have to take it as is.
I too, wonder if there is more than one monster because of when at the beginning Marlena says she say it eat someone and then at the end it did not eat Hud, it just killed him and left him there.
But I was left with many unanswered questions that could not have been answered in the way the film was shot, so I am hoping for a bit more.
The end.

I was really let down. The monster and the actor seemed to be in their own movies and we didn’t get enough of the monster’s. I also hated the characters rationale for their actions after the bridge attack. Also, Lily should have been devastated by watching her boyfriend die like he did, but she shrugged it off pretty quick. And the army men with proper equipment die in the copter crash, but the three kids survive? And this is an obvious nit pick, but how did one tape capture 7 hours of footage?

Gonzo: I concede that Lily didn’t seem devastated enough. I know that was a crazy moment, but I think her mood was a little off.

Regarding the tape, it didn’t contain 7 hours of footage. It contained footage spanning a 7 hour timespan.

Sure, but DV tapes only last an hour and the movie was longer than that. I’m willing to let that little detail go, but they could have easily said they had multiple tapes or were using a hardrive camera.

I just got back from seeing it and I pretty much went into the thing blind, only seeing the commercials on TV.

I really liked it, except I wish there was more character development and less monster. Maybe it’s because I’m a writer, but I think overall the movie woulda been more effective if we knew the characters more. Like, every so often we get a little snippet of “the day” between Rob and Beth. I wish there was more of that, giving us more of a backstory of how these people ended up here.

WOW Now that I remember the whole slusho thing i can make sense of the dam film. We had people at the end in my theater, throwing soda cups and screaming its bullshit…and I was rather loudly complaining about the lack of ending.
I also agree that there should have been some kind of brief slusho scene so that non followers of the viral marketing would understand whats going on.
And not to be weird…but was it not rather racist to show Black people looting and their arms full of dvds and tv’s watching the news in that store?

I mean yeah Rob a battery, but to blatantly have the black guys with loads of stolen electronics…

It may have been because I had a really nasty hangover from the night before but I only made it through just under an hour of the movie before I had to get up and leave. My girlfriend wasn’t feeling the greatest either. As we walked out of the theater we saw one guy puking into a trash can after leaving just minutes before us. There was also a girl being carted off to an ambulance on a stretcher after passing out on the stairs in the theater.

I was a little bit upset about the camera work…actually I was a lot a bit upset about the camera work. I have never seen some one take such shaky camera footage ever. Not even with those huge bulky VHS cameras from the early 90’s. It looked like they gave the camera to a guy who had Parkinson’s and pushed him around New York. I was really looking forward to seeing this movie so I feel sad that I couldn’t make it through it. Maybe I’ll try again when it comes out on DVD.

Oh also in response to mandy_Reeves: There were white guys rushing into that store from what I remember seeing. Though I could be wrong as I was closing my eyes and putting head between my legs every 5 minutes so I wouldn’t puke.

I totally agree with you matt. I don’t get the argument that the characters aren’t worth caring about and what not. I thought the movie was great and that for what they did, they did it all very well.

Just got back from Cloverfield. It was a good monster movie to me, nothing more, nothing less.

The last time I had an experience at the theater was when I saw Grindhouse. Man, did that movie pump me. Now if they would just release the entire thing on DVD (SCREW this two DVD release stuff with things cut out) I would be a happy camper.

I liked the movie but it was hard for me to watch because I had to put my head down a lot because I got really motion sick. For Diary of the Dead i think I will bring some motion sickness pills.

Mandy, I’m with Giffels, I didn’t notice any stereotyping going on with the looters, but I wasn’t looking closely either.
JLAJRC, I was thinking that Cloverfield is the first movie since Grindhouse that’s really felt like a capital-E Experience. They ARE releasing the theatrical version on DVD eventually, by the way, with the shorter versions of the movies and the missing trailers put back in. I guess I’m just a fan girl, because I’m happy to buy the three different DVDs…the extended version of Death Proof is much better than the shortened theatrical version anyway.

Squee: The thing is that I RARELY have an experience at the theater. I usually just go and say “That movie was good” or “The movie sucked.” It takes alot to pump me up. The way some people are describing this movie it was like they were having a religious experience, which is good. But to me Cloverfield was no better or worse than most other giant monster movies.

Hurray! I finally got to see Cloverfield! I’ve been pretty much housebound with walking pneumonia for the past week and a half, and wasn’t able to go to the movies to see it, but accidentally stumbled upon a website that was streaming the movie last night. Let me tell ya, as soon as I get better, I’m going to see this movie again in theaters! I was completely blown away, even with the crappy resolution! Must see on the big screen!

I just got back from the movie, so here are my immediate post-viewing thoughts and feelings. I WILL GIVE MAJOR SPOILERS, INCLUDING THE ENDING, SO CONSIDER THIS YOUR WARNING!!!

First off, anyone who says they’ve never seen this monster before is wrong. You saw it in your nightmares when you were a 5 years old. Honestly, J.J. Abrams seems to have mined the collective unconscious for this monster, because it is viscerally terrifying, in ways that King Kong, Godzilla and other big bad guys aren’t. I think I can take a fairly good crack at describing it too. I think it’s half-fish, half-insect. If I had to compare it to two real-life animals, I’d say it has the back and tail of a sting ray and the face, eyes and legs of a Praying Mantis, with huge fucking teeth thrown in for good measure. For the record, I think the little guys are baby versions: they look just the big one, particularly the teeth and the legs.

I’d give the movie as a whole a solid “B”. It doesn’t get an A because of the ending. Not the whole third act, just the parts after the copter crash. I just didn’t like it. We didn’t really need to see the monster eat Hud, so up close. I’d seen enough of the monster before that, particularly right before the copter goes down, to know what it looks like, if that was their purpose in doing that scene. Plus, why would a monster that size bother with a tiny human? Something that big doesn’t need one human for sustenance. The whole moment just felt disingenuous to me. If they felt they needed to kill off Hud, they should have had the monster step on him or kick him aside or something, but eating/biting him just didn’t make sense to me, other than to just give the audience a thrill. The worst part though was the way Rob and Beth died, like trapped rats. It bummed me out. I don’t want to leave a fun, “big scary monster” movie bummed out. It was certainly not the typical Hollywood ending, in a movie that was certainly atypical for Hollywood. But it all just felt like the wrong notes to end on for me, those last 3 or 4 scenes. The movie would have been so much better if they’d just have cut to the credits, or the Coney Island scene, after the copter crash. That way, your last images are the teeth lunging and the copter spinning, and you’re left with a more ambiguous ending. But maybe that would have been too “No Country for Old Men”.

My favorite moment in the film was when the group was in the alley and suddenly all hell breaks lose. It was one second nothing, then BAM!, the monster comes, the army comes and suddenly it’s apocalypse. And we get our first good look at the monster. Very cool moment.

As for whether there was more than one monster, the jury is definitely still out. I agree, it did seem to change from time to time. Sometimes it was on two legs, sometimes on four, but it was still the same general monster. I just don’t think it would have gone from the Statue of Liberty, to land (the building falls over very shortly after the Liberty head lands), to the Brooklyn Bridge and then back to land. Doesn’t make sense. I think there might have been one monster in the water and one on land. Or there was some other factor at work. Maybe it teleports?

Besides just being a monster movie, it was also, quite obviously, a big giant Terrorism metaphor. Those evocations of 9/11 were clearly no mistake. But I guess that makes sense; as a society, we’ve always used monster/horror movies to work out our fears of real life horrors. Of course it’s also akin, because the more we see of the monster, the less we really know about it and the more terrifying it becomes.

Overall, though, yeah, it was an interesting filmgoing experience, seeing the monster movie from a first-person point of view. I definitely felt like “I’ve seen this before, but this time it’s different”, right when the group emerged from the building and the crowd started running and screaming. Definitely try to see this one in the theaters if you can, you feel like you’re right there with them the whole time. Oh, and if you’re looking for the splash in the water at the end Matt mentioned, it’s not right by the boat, it’s a little ways to the left. I almost missed it ’cause I was staring at the boat.

This movie must have felt like what it felt like when audiences first saw King Kong in the 30’s or Godzilla in the 50’s.

In interviews, the director said that the monster was confused and going through separation anxiety. Theres also been rumor of it’s mother. I don’t know how a creature and its mother could have both been involved in a satellite crash incident.

And if something crashed by the shore and something was awakened near new york why did the oil drilling station in the middle of the ocean sink. It seems weird that it would start in New York, move to the middle of the sea, then go back to New York.

JLAJRC, I can only speak for myself, but I get into the anticipation when it comes to certain movies (and shows), and by the time they finally show up if they’re halfway decent, I’m happy. So then when something turns out as awesome as Cloverfield, after having looked forward to it so much, I really go bananas. Hence my continuing obsession with Grindhouse, come to think of it.
I’m not really comparing Clover to any of the great/classic monster movies when I say it’s awesome, though. I don’t even know that I’m familiar with many…I’m enjoying it more based on the larger, easy to obsess over universe it’s going on in, and part of what I think makes it such a good movie is what Wilkins mentioned. I hate boiling everything down to the idea of “the post-9/11 world” but I thought it definitely had a modern perspective going on in terms of what is scary, disaster and how people react to it. I’d compare it more to something like Children of Men or maybe even 28 Days Later in that respect.
So speaking of Kong, I keep meaning to mention this: anybody know why I’m still finding new junk from the Peter Jackson movie? I understand why I still see stuff at the 99Â¢ store, I figured it just never sold elsewhere and made it’s way to being discounted. But the regular grocery store just put in a vending machine giving out tiny little Kong figures too. I’m not complaining, I’m happy to have a mini Jack Black and Adrien Brody for my desk at work. I just thought it was weird considering the movie came out two years ago.

I did watch 4 people get up and leave, my girlfriend also felt a bit sick during the movie, though she wasn’t feeling 100% when we headed out of the house anyway.

Wilkins I agree that the scene where Hud was eaten/biten could have been left out. It just felt a little bit like a compromise to keep people from complainig about watching for almost two hours and not seeing the monster.

However I disagree about the Rob and Beth part. First I think its still up in the air if they are dead or not. Also since the movie was going for realism to make you feel like this was actually happening thats what would likely happen a tape thats found later probably wouldn’t be from survivors, expecially people who didn’t evacuate quickly.

I would only give Cloverfield a “B” if this was it. But to me it really feels like just the first part of an epic tale and does a great job to see the tone for what could become a great overall story and thats why I would give it an A. You could a movie from the same night but a different camera that was found to explain a little more, you could have a movie that explains the aftermath, you could have a movie that explains the origin. Thats what a movie should do IMHO, leave you wanting more, leave you wanting to stay in that world or wondering/imaninging yourself what would happen. Its just so refreshing when most movies follow the same formula of all the loose ends conveniently tying themselves off in the last scene and cut to black.

Rob, to your point, the director more or less said (albeit it in a very roundabout way) that they realized they needed to clearly show the monster pretty late in the game. My theory is that they didn’t intend to have that scene from the start, and both its scripting and special effecting were last in line for both processes.

I agree with them to a degree, because if people were upset about the “non-ending,” we can imagine how upset they’d be if they never really got a good look at the monster. Still, I wish they didn’t do it. It looks too polished, and the whole eating-Hud thing came off as pretty unnatural. Plus (and this has been a major point of debate), no matter what “forced perspective” argument a person could muster, I will always believe that the monster from that scene looked to be 1/4th the size of the monster in the other scenes. Seriously, it looked Rancor-sized.

There’s a point to this ramble:
So, if you guys go search CardCaptor Loki’s account on Youtube (that’s me XD), there’s a video called Traversing the Cornmaze of Reality. Its a lil video I made about a local cornmaze to a Silent Hill 4 song. So I took my digital camera and used the movie function to video it. I made myself sick trying to edit the damn thing cuz I didn’t have a tripod or better equipment.

A shaking camera always looks worse than you think cuz even the slightest twitch looks like an earthquake. Look at the advent calendar; Matt said he went through hundreds of pix just for the precious few that made it on due to focus and blurriness, and those are stills.

So: Hud’s camera work was actually normal, and sometimes really good during “down times”. As for being cheap, an animation company still has to GET the monster into the shots in addition to making things explode/fall down, casting off parasites, etc. I am an animation major and if you want to call that cheap, so be it, but you CANNOT, CANNOT say that its, by any stretch of the imagination, EASY to do all that w/ a camera that jumpy. I’m insulted to think someone would think the effort that goes into it is bumpkis because its a civillian POV w/ a handy cam.

Sorry, just had to get that off my chest. Bad acting’s one thing, but animation is a whole other bag of beans. ^^;;

True Matt, but since their are theories that the mini-monsters are the same as the large monster adn that there was more then one monster the monster that ate Hud might not be the same as the larger one ripping the head off the statue of liberty.

also Matt, which sites would you recommened for those who would like to obsess more about the movie.

I set my expectations really low, expecting an overwrought shaky-cam mess filled with unlikable characters and rare glimpses of the monster. Well, I was wrong, because the movie delivers the God damn goods. This isn’t a cinematic masterpiece, but if you’re looking to see a huge fucking monster rape the shit out of Manhattan, you won’t be disappointed.

My only complaint is that the movie wasn’t 8 hours long, because I want to see more. I want to follow another group of people and see how they react and try to survive, I want to see even more of the monster, I want to see more of the military fighting the monster (I loved the scene where they first come across the soliders firing rockets and rolling the tank down the street), I want to see more news reports… I just want more of everything, because I love shit like this.

I was looking forward to hearing your impressions, Matt, and I’m happy to see that we agreed on nearly all the same points. I especially liked what you said about Marlena and Hud, I actually just finished searching on IMDb to see what other stuff the actress who play Marlena has done.

I am dying to see it at least one more time in theaters, but yeah, this is the first movie since Lord of the Rings to spark my imagination and leave me giddy to see it 5 more times.

I saw it last night and the only word I could use to describe the film is visceral. Once the monster starts its attack you’re pulled in a taken along for one hell of a ride.

I will definitely have to see it again before it leaves the theaters (which I’m sure will be a while). Though I do fear that a 2nd viewing will have less of an impact.

Doho: The monster is all over YouTube — just search “cloverfield monster” and organize by “date added.” You’ll mostly get to see the one big close-up, but the better shots are harder to find.

The more I read about Cloverfield, the more I want to see it again.
I love the ambiguity of it, and all these little things that have popped up just make the lore more compelling. I’m glad they didn’t hammer the viewer over the head with everything, it trusted the audience to be intelligent.

Chazbot, I feel the same way: I can’t wait to go see it again, but I don’t have anybody I can convince to go with me. I don’t have a problem with seeing movies by myself on occasion, but for some reason I really don’t want to in this case. If anybody in the LA area feels like going…not today though, I’m going to Knott’s Berry Farm. Hey, how cool would a Cloverfield ride be?

Just saw it this morning. Holy crap. I don’t even know where to start. If I had to sum it up, the only word I can think of is INTENSE. I can see some of the criticism, and understand where some of it’s coming from, but at the end of the day, I don’t care. I thought it was amazing. There are a few things I want to discuss though.

-The Statue of Liberty head–is it really that small? Every other movie I’ve seen (and I’m mostly thinking of Ghosbuters 2) depicted it to be so big you could walk up inside of it and look out of the crown. It didn’t look near that big here. Can some of you New Yorkers shed some light on this.

–Matt’s point about the “Hud eating” shot at the end. I was thinking the same thing. The monster looked a good deal smaller there than it did in the rest of the movie. Whether this supports the theory that there could have been more than one monster, I don’t know, but I noticed that right off the bat.

I wish now that I had kept up with all the viral stuff. Until reading all the other comments just now, I was completely clueless about all the other J.J. Abrams connections, and I think the movie would have been a little more enjoyable had I known all that ahead of time. Also, I didn’t pick up on any LOST references either. Anybody know what/where they were?

As far as the performances, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. I think it did a great job of crafting really likeable characters and I really felt every death and mourned it somewhat. I also like the fact that none of them were big names, something that absolutely needs to happen more often in horror movies. I was convinced that they weren’t going to get to his girlfriend in time and was a little bummed when it turned out she was alive, but ultimately satisfied at their demise in the end. I’m so tired of Hollywood movies that let the two most sympathic, heroic characters make it in the end and have everything tied up in a nice big bow. The fact that it ended up utterly hopeless in the end and that it was left wide open for interpretation, a sequel, and a lot of debate, is just the way I like it. I’m all for fewer happy endings in movies these days. Also, something else happened that is rare for me. I started out hating a character and grew to like him. Of course, I’m talking about Hud. I actually couldn’t wait for him to bite it early on. I thought he was so incredibly obnoxious, but his comments had me laughing toward the end. The gorehound in me would like to have seen more gore in his death though. As much as I sympathized with the characters though, I was kind of rooting for the monster. Especially at the end, just before it attacked the helicopter and was really getting bombed, I actually felt pretty sorry for it.

Which brings me to Marlene. Loved her from the second she was on the screen. Hated to see her go, but man, what a cool way to go out! Definitely didn’t see that one coming!

Just one more thought though. I can absoutely buy the idea of a giant monster attacking New York. Got not problems with that at all. Where I had to suspend my disbelief though is the fact that Hud insisted on hanging on to that dang camera the whole time. Of course, if he hadn’t we wouldn’t have had a movie, but I’m sorry, as soon as that shit went down on the bridge, I’m running. Screw the camera. I’m hauling ass. Also, I know this was PG13, but I think that if this stuff was going down for real, my language would have been just a tad more colorful than anything I heard in the movie.

Oh, and I’m officially jazzed for the new Star Trek thing now. That Enterprise is looking good. There’s such a good chance for this to be really good or terribly bad. I hope they don’t blow it. No Shatner though and that sucks. I’ll have to let it slide.

Finally saw this last night. Holy crap, I can’t wait for the DVD. Didn’t follow the hype, had a rough idea what to expect, but still had a GREAT time.

When the credits started to roll, my fiancee turned to me and said “Did you see that??” I said “No. What?” Turns out, she saw the object splashing down into the water in the final shot. I didn’t even see it!

I finally got to see Cloverfield yesterday. I hadn’t paid much attention to any of the hype…but it sounded like a good movie.

I just wish for once I had forced my daughter to be willing to sit further back. We sat, as usual, right near the front of the theater.

I’ve never had a real problem with motion sickness, but I did yesterday. I never put the two together, the way I felt with the motion of the camera…I was trying to figure out what I had eaten that was bothering me so much. She saw I was in sad shape…then said it was the camera motion. I closed my eyes and that helped.

I dropped an email to a former coworker (and fellow LOST-lover) today who knows how crazy this month is just to mention how happy I was to finally see a LOST-shaped light at the end of the tunnel and see what she thought of Cloverfield, and she wrote back right away and told me she LOVED it. I was thrilled, because outside of you guys everybody I know has been a total hater so far :)

So I gave in and started Googling for these alleged LOST references in Cloverfield. I can’t attest for the validity of any of this stuff because a quick glance at the wiki site didn’t confirm anything, but the biggie appears to be this: http://img512.imageshack.us/im...512/4517/vlcsnap6932188yp4.png
That could easily be a fake, but I saw it in a few different places. It’s the Dharma logo!
Some of the other things people are claiming are appearances by the numbers (which I was totally expecting) and from things like Geronimo Jackson posters and McCutcheon’s scotch. Which is exactly the kind of stuff I was trying to watch for, but the camerawork was just too much for me I guess.

Fun little spot-the-crossover bits aside, I think the real connection between LOST and Cloverfield is the use of the flashback technique, though they did it totally differently. I’ve been thinking about it a lot the last few days, because, you know, LOST comes back on Thursday (:!:) and I have no life. I knew about the flashbacks ahead of time for Cloverfield and I was wondering if they would follow the LOST formula, which is more or less: one or more people acting inscrutable in the present day, and then you have the flashbacks, and the revelations, and so on. But they changed it up and instead of using the flashbacks to expand the plot they dispatched all the suspense about what happened between Rob and Beth fairly quickly in the main timeline, and instead they used the flashbacks to remind us why Rob wasn’t going to give up on trying to save her, which is just oh-so-romantic and bittersweet. But then of course they have to be extra awesome and sneak the Coney Island splashdown in there too. It was a really cool twist on what I was expecting.

squee, Wow, I didn’t spot any of that, but on the other hand I wasn’t really looking for any of it either. I totally forgot about a possible LOST connection and just got caught up in the story and action. I really want to see it a second time now to try to spot all that, and the splashdown at the end. I missed that too, as well as this supposed whispering after the credits. Wow, there’s so much more going on to this movie than I was aware of. Makes me wish I had followed all the viral stuff beforehand too.

LOST comes back on Thursday??? What the? Where did the time go! Thanks for the reminder. I might have missed it.

All I have to say is this: Wow. Just…wow. Freaky, fucking freaky. My eyes are completely open now. My heart’s racing, and I’m a guy who is squeamish at dead, bloody bodies, and there lots, especially exploding Marlene. Ick.

Matt, you are 10000000% correct about everything in that movie. Hell, I didn’t even notice the meteor at the end! Nice!

And yeah, I completely agree about not caring about everyone else’s opinions, cuz I feel like I was the only one who loved it!

If you haven’t seen it yet, just let yourself get sucked into the movie. It is like going to a haunted house

I love reading people’s enthusiastic reviews. Look at all those exclamation points

DJ, you’re most welcome for the LOST reminder. I’m still not used to the idea of Thursdays being LOST Night instead of Wednesdays. Had to rock a little S3 marathon tonight in anticipation. Tomorrow is going to be a very long day.
I’m also still adjusting to the idea that LOST and Cloverfield are part of the same universe (possibly?). I mean, the smoke monster can wreak some havoc, but Craphole Island isn’t quite Manhattan after all.

First new post in four days. Well, it looks like I missed the boat as far as being able to discuss the movie with my fellow X-E’rs. I finally got around to checking out the movie tonight and I was not at all disappointed. Considering that many of the reviews I had seen online were negative (mind you, I had not clicked on this thread intentionally, to avoid spoilers), I was prepared fo