"Cloverfield"

[Marcus Dublin]

I've been looking forward to seeing this film since the viral campaign kicked off and I was wondering if anyone else was interested in seeing it as well? Here's an early review on IGN: http://movies.ign.com/articles/845/845821p1.html for those who are curious about the film.:lucky:

[BDStevens]

I do like the little "How clever do we want this genre to be?" warning at the end there. My fear for this movie is that they string it along for too long. That the anticipation will give way to frustration at not being able to see what's going on. Hopefully the monster will be worth it in the end.

I remember arguing with coworkers after the first weekend of Transformers about whether the film title was simply the release date that the tagged the end with. I don't always love the plotting (Alias "No one will recognize me in THIS wig") of the stuff that Abrams puts out but I got to admit that usually carries off whatever he does with a certain amount of style.

[ryuju]

I plan on going to see it tomorrow. I wish they would have kept up with dealing out little secrets about the movie that you had to find through different websites i think they could have hyped it even more if they would have had a big mystery and get everyone trying to be detectives and figure out the clues.

[GrM]

Im thinking this will be kinda cool, but on the other hand, I wont expect too much out of it. Im predicting that the monster will be cool until we actually see it for an extended amount of time. That was kind of what I am Legend did for me, scary build-up, but unscary monsters.

[Ramseus]

Not interested. Not falling for that massive fail of an ad campaign with an incredibly uninteresting trailer either.

[poopinmymouth]

I saw a sneak peak here in Iceland on Thursday night. I loved it, but then again, I like most movies. Makes it more fun that way.

http://www.mr-chompers.com/images/poop.gif (http://www.poopinmymouth.com)

[ryuju]

Just got home from seeing it, I thought it was great. There were some things that could have been improved but every movie has their ups and downs. I thought the cg was really good and it was really exciting. Definitely worth seeing.

[rv_el]

I enjoyed the movie. good time.

i saw it openning night on a nice big screen. that helps.

[onelung]

I enjoyed the movie. good time.

i saw it openning night on a nice big screen. that helps.

Yea! I really liked it too... but i sat in the back of the theater which helped.... a lot. Shaking cam got to be a bit much for my GF.... so if you or your significant other get motion sickness easily, sit towards the back. :paper:

[iceblazer17]

The movie was awsome, the ending was awsome....definitally buying this movie when it comes out.

[Marcus Dublin]

I finally got a chance to see this the other day "So much for opening night" and like most people I love it. I can't wait for the DVD with all of the extras, I'm especially interested in the camera work. As crazy as this sounds I think the film makers had a hard time faking the hand held look, it was pretty clever and well executed!:)

[miezis]

i was sitting in the 3rd row, and the screen was rather large. at some points i had to take my eyes off it, because it was impossible to follow anything on the screen. but i really liked the movie - very JJ Abramish :)

[Masakari]

I liked the movie, it was good, dirty fun. Seeing cities and people getting chomped to bits never gets old. Although they have been saying there might be more movies and all that, i hope they don't go all "franchise" on Cloverfield, it's not that kind of movie IMO.

[ryuju]

The shaky shots didn't make me sick at all I enjoyed them, I can't imagine the movie being shot any other way, but my friend felt sick. I sat toward the back so maybe that helped. I loved the sound effects, especially the sounds of the ropes snapping on the bridge.

[necrostrife]

I loooveed It it was AWSOME! to the max, and like FREDH, cant wait for the dvd to see how they did that shaky cam effect, cuz getting those effects in on a real camcorder recording in post would be impossible.

There is one thing that bothered me though about the movie, just a small nit pic mostly, at the beginning of the film in the open sequence with the government title thingy it said that the film was recovered on a memory card, then in the movie the characters keep referring to the tape, the lead male asks his friend if he put a new tape in and at the end in the shot of him and the girl on the train he says its almost out of tape. Also if it were on a memory stick it wouldn’t be recording over the other video, it always makes a new file each time you start and stop recording. Just thought that was weird.

[cookepuss]

I've been avoiding this movie. Neither the trailer nor the *cough* "viral" campaign were doing anything for me. I'm pretty burnt out on the shaky cam look. It more or less makes everything look like a You Tube video, imho.

For me at least, it [shaky cam] makes a whole bunch of sense on a show like "Cops" where there's less of a narrative and more of a "slice of life" angle going on. It mostly works great in short bursts. For a feature length film, I think that its a mixed blessing.

The idea works great for something like "The Blair Witch Project," which had only a production budget of $60,000. That's film making with an eye on budgetary constraints.

For something like "Cloverfield"... Even though the $30mil budget is microscopic compared to other such flicks, it's still $30mil. It reminds me of the old Bono quote:

"It costs a fortune to look this trashy." :)

I'll probably hold off for the DVD. I'm a huge horror/monster movie fan, but I've pretty much outgrown the city rampage sub-genre. (One of my main problems with Transformers, btw - lousy script aside.)

at the beginning of the film in the open sequence with the government title thingy it said that the film was recovered on a memory card, then in the movie the characters keep referring to the tape, the lead male asks his friend if he put a new tape in and at the end in the shot of him and the girl on the train he says its almost out of tape.
I don't know about the character's cam, but my digital camcorder support multiple media. For mine, the main media is a built-in 60GB hard drive. However, I can also record to memory cards. I'm pretty sure that there are cams that support both memory card and tape.

Also if it were on a memory stick it wouldn’t be recording over the other video, it always makes a new file each time you start and stop recording.
Suspension of disbelief. Its the same reason why you accept that John McClane roams around shooting up bad guys and blowing up cars, but never once faces a judge. You believe it because you want to. Think about it too hard and your head will explode. That or you need a new hobby. :)

[Masakari]

Actually, you had it right the first time with the "slice of life" thing - that's exactly what Cloverfield is. Just watching a bunch of "normal" folks trying to survive. It's a slice of their life. The final slice, actually :D

As for the cam, i read somewhere that they used a real "handycam", some Sony HD Cam, top of the line model (they had the exact reference, but i dont remember) - which is probably very expensive, but is still a "mass market" cam.

[blankslatejoe]

yeah cooke--the film is really about the characters in this situation, and less about the catatrophic events/crazy sci fi elements...yet it pulls of those well too..

kudos to a well made film. It was JUST the right length too--only 84 minutes, but any longer and I would have been squirming--the length fits it perfect. made up for a lot of the letdown FX-centric films to come out lately

[seungeon]

"Handy cam" just little bit..

I was got moviesick...

[veedo]

i really liked the movie :D thought it was awesome
the monsters looked pretty cool and the effects were top notch to boot

only thing i didn't really like were the over-excesive camera shaking parts... i understand that it's part of the movie and the whole effect of it just being these normal people... but they could have made it a bit more stable and less headache inducing while still making it seem amature

[MaxH]

okay...after seeing the movie...did anyone notice that the statue of liberty head was a bit too small lying in the middle of the street??
otherwise it was fun experience watching it...and yes, my wife got motion sickness after the film...and we sat in the back of the theater too!

[Guedin]

Yeah ... Motion Sickness ! I got it too :s
Otherwise i enjoy the movie, kind of original and got so much life than other movie.
However we were 5 buddy to go to the theater and i was the only one to enjoy the movie :think: The other guys was really disappointed by the end ... It doesn't bother me ... I don't want to go in further explanation about the end to avoid spoil ;)

[ryuju]

I think that I read that the statue of liberty's head was the correct size, they did the measurements. I could be wrong though, but I have heard other people say the same thing.

[Irreal]

A group of us sat at the front just so that we could get center seats. Top tip: don't sit at the front when watching it. For the majority of the film i couldn't tell what was happening. Still thought it was awesome though.

Watch "The host" if you haven't seen it. Top korean monster flick.