Alright, I could put out a full review on Cloverfield but that might incite riots that my blog, frankly, cannot handle. I don’t think it was a bad movie, I just don’t think it was a particularly great movie and I definitely don’t think it lived up to the hype. In all honesty, I enjoyed the viral marketing, predictions, and plotline leading up to the movie more than the actual movie itself.
I LOVED the character Hud. He’s classic but we don’t get to see enough of him since he’s “holding” the camera for us the entire time.
Ok- The Major Complaint.
Everyone has said that the plot really “makes it real” for you and that the camera work only “adds to it.” So let me get this straight- it’s a 90 minute movie, approx 5 of which are credits (give or take) and 10 minutes is side plot/unrelated to the actual monster/action. That leaves about an hour and fifteen minutes of time that Hud is holding the camera. Beyond two scenes (the subway and when they rewind to see the monster- not really a spoiler, don’t crap your pants)- the camera never turns off.
The plotline runs from about 11pm to 7 in the morning. 8 HOURS. You’re telling me that in an hour and fifteen minutes the characters somehow time traveled into the future without us knowing? Or maybe time magically got faster in NY when the monster attacked? Even if we give that the party lasted until… 2 am before the monster struck (still in full swing if you watched the previews) and that the subway turn off of the camera lasted… two hours, that still leaves 3 hours of time covered in an hour and fifteen.
Oh yeah, and the camera doesn’t need a change of battery? hmmm…. Gosh I wish I had a magical time traveling camera that never lost energy. Wouldn’t that be great?!
It just doesn’t make sense logically.
Yes that, out of all the complaints one might make about Cloverfield, this is by far my biggest complaint since I actually want someone to explain it.
There is a movie that is coming out very soon produced by J.J. Abrams (‘Lost,’ ‘Alias,’ ‘Felicity,’ and several others). It features an unknown threat on Cloverfield (previously central park) and NY City. Some have predicted it will be the best monster movie America has ever seen. Unfortunately, many people have never heard of this movie. This is most like because up until very recently, it didn’t even have a title. Since interest was peaked months ago by the release of the teaser prior to the showing of Transformers, movie goers had only the release date to call it by. Now known as “Cloverfield” and also “1/18/07” on discussion forums, the movie has created an underground culture of obsessed and intrigued Internet fans.
Ok, a cool monster movie. I dig it. So what’s the catch? Abrams and the production team are keeping the monster a secret and, depending on how you see it, that could be very fortunate or a terrible move by the production team. Even when individuals auditioned for the part they were not given a piece of the script to work off of, but instead scripts of previous Abrams projects. The reason that this might be a bad move is because, since so many people do not know about the movie, box office sales may be decreased. This was exemplified by “Snakes on a Plane” when it failed to garner real box office success. Why go to a movie that you don’t know about or that fails to give a good reason to go?
There is hope though. The movie is told from 1st person’s perspective by a hand held camera that is an effort to capture the events that are happening in order to provide evidence for people later of what/why the destruction occurred. The Blair Witch project, which had huge box office success, was similar for three reasons- the camera technique, low production cost, and the secrecy prior to release. There are many advantages that are garnered through this similarity such as increased box office gains since there is practically no cost (compared to other movies). However, these similarities raise a major concern for me. The Blair Witch project never actually shows their attacker. With so much hype on the monster and what it looks like, would it be possible that Abrams would not actually show it? That would be terrible, but at the same time… We fear the unknown. If we can’t see it we may fear it even more. Is the idea to scare everyone despite building it up? If that happened I would feel very validated in my concern, but would walk out of the theater disappointed and pissed.
So now we play the questions game- What is this monster? Who is it? Personally I think that it’s going to be awesome. The idea for Cloverfield was spawned by Abrams after visiting a toy store with his son in Japan. As legend tells, it occurred to Abrams while he picked up a Godzilla toy and thought, ‘Japan has its own monster, it’s time America had its own.’ In Abrams opinion King Kong is ‘too cute’ and we need something scarier, something unimaginable.
It is now time to decide what theory you believe, or whether you want to be surprised. The movie released in a month and 8 days, so you better make up your mind rapidly if you are trying to solve the mystery behind Cloverfield.
If you still don’t know what I’m talking about I’ve provided the trailers. I suggest watching them in order even if you saw the first one five months ago. The full trailer appeared about only two weeks ago.
The trailers
i. Shown over summer before transformers (teaser)
ii. Full Trailer
And now for you clue searchers:
A. The “official website” – It consists of 6 time stamped photos. While Abrams said that there would be many websites to advertise the movie, this is the only one dubbed “official” by the production team.
B. The viral websites to advertise– Just like Abrams promised ☺
1. Slusho- A character in one of the trailers is wearing a ’slusho’ t-shirt. Slusho is a fictional drink that was first introduced in Abrams’ show ‘Alias.’
2. Tagruato- Fictional company that makes slusho and does undersea drilling.
3. Tidowave – A fictional protest group to Tagruato.
Can you unscramble the clues and figure out what monster is attacking NY City before the opening release? It could it be that all this talk from Abrams was a ploy to release another Godzilla movie, or maybe it’s a robot from Japan, or (according to many youtuber conspiracy theorists) an evolved or mutated whale/monster. But what do you believe? Drop me a comment if you think you have the answer, I’m always up for a new theory on this one, and maybe I’ll share mine.
