[Movie Review] Cloverfield

BouncingSoul

Stranger Than Fiction
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Now THIS is how you make a horror movie! Keep it simple, give us the characters, give us a little insight about who they are and give us the monster. But don't do it all at once, tease us a little. Like Spielberg did with Jaws, you know the monster is out there, but when will you see it? More importantly than that, does the monster disappoint? Absolutely not! Its conventional enough to not piss people off yet its original enough to not feel like a rehash of Godzilla. There are so many ways a film like this could fail, yet it avoids them all. The unknown actors are all great, all completely believable. The cinematography is superb, sure its all hand held (and nauseating, be prepared) but its such a fresh take on the genre. I can't say enough great things about it. I know its early and all but I can't imagine a film this year being more absorbing and terrifying.

5/5 OSNN Stars.
 
Yeah, just got back from the theater. Very intense. Totally entertaining. :)
 
I am in total support of the words above me. A really intense experience for sure. I felt like I just came out of a car crash - in a good way :p

Get ready for the dozens of rip offs that will be coming soon.

What are you waiting for? GO GO GO GO!
 
just got back a while ago from a 10:30 show (it's 1:30 now). i was paranoid on the drive home.. kept looking over at downtown Sacramento expecting to see mass destruction taking place. :squareeye

very entertaining. riveting, even.
 
i was paranoid on the drive home.. kept looking over at downtown Sacramento expecting to see mass destruction taking place. :squareeye
Imagine how I felt entering the subway station here in NYC... :D
 
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Damn I gotta go see this movie......
 
I really enjoyed the movie. It was simple but you sort of cared about the people :)

4/5 OSNN stars.

Btw, anyone else see the "capsule" crashing into the water in the final scene with the flash-back footage of Rob and Beth at Coney island? It falls into the water... Could that have been the thang?
 
*grumble* *grumble* haven't seen it yet...

Must.. resist.. clicking.. spoiler.. tags..
 
Btw, anyone else see the "capsule" crashing into the water in the final scene with the flash-back footage of Rob and Beth at Coney island? It falls into the water... Could that have been the thang?

I didn't see it during the movie, but a couple of my friends did. Checked it up online and there are a couple theories as to what it could maybe. Maybe it's what woke up the monster. Maybe it just contained the monster.

Also, after the credits you get it hear a radio transmission. If played backwards, you hear someone whispering "It's still alive".
 
Man, I can't wait to watch this. I was suppose to go this weekend but cancelled plans because some of my friends weren't gonna make it. I'm seeing it this weekend for sure. Screw 'em. I can't wait any longer. :p

*so tempted to click on the spoiler tags*
 
The movie was great, very intense as to the way it was filmed. It made it harder to make out things which gave the film more tension as it went along.

Kinda sucked how the friend (guy with the camera) ate it. Maybe if he had just laid still and not kept shooting with the damn camera? You know, play dead. Maybe. And the bite. Damn. Get bit go boom, yuk. My only complaint is the size of the Statue Of Liberty's head. It was too small. The base of the crown on her head is an observation deck. It was too small in my opinion. If it had been 1 1/2 times that size it would have been much more believable. Don't get me wrong it was believable enough, but come on.
 
Is this a movie that one could go to alone?

My regular movie buddy is seeing it with his company (a Friday outing) so for me, it's solo or not at all.
 
Just got back from viewing Cloverfield a couple of hours ago. [SIZE=-1]Absolutely incredible! The beginning seemed to drag a little but In a good way. Like taking a quiet ride through the countryside then all of a sudden you're in a 4X4 jumping off mountains!!

Intense, Intense Intense! The bar has been set for Monster Movies Period! J.J Did good.

5 stars! all the way!!! w00t!!!!
[/SIZE]
 
Finally got to see this tonight. Wow... I did not expect that much constant intensity!!!

I really appreciated the ways in which the characters were presented to us and I actually did care for most of the main characters -- that's not always the case with these types of movies. Great acting from a bunch of no-names makes it even better. No "War of the Worlds" Tom Cruise or "I Am Legend" Will Smith here. :)

I thought the reactions by the people were spot-on in the age of YouTube and Facebook. If the Statue of Liberty's head came crashing down the street, most people would take pictures and video, and then run. :) Ordinary people want to tell the story just as much as the professional reporter does now, so it's no wonder the guy continued filming everything despite his life being in danger. I thought that was a well-done commentary on how our society responds to incredible, even life-threatening, events.

4.5/5 OSNN Stars for me. I deduct half a point for a number of minor cliches that I wished had been done differently. The main one being
when Hud dies, the way the camera falls facing him as he lies dead on the ground. That's been done too many times before, so they could have been more creative with that.

It also bothered me that the helicopter chose to fly right above the monster, instead of in the completely opposite direction. Yes, I know it had to crash but it's still irritating because it's completely illogical. Also having all 3 of them survive the helicopter crash is stretching it a bit much.

I guess I'd also have to say that they took it a bit too far with introducing some sort of infection or virus with the bite of the small creatures, which is how Marlena died. That just ventures too far into a zombie-type genre when this was more of a Godzilla/monster genre movie.

OK, I know it's just a monster movie but I can have my annoyances, so there they are. Still, it was so dang good that it gets a near-perfect rating from me. :)
 
Hey muzi,

Remember that after she (Marlena) was pulled into the tent she proceeded to balloon and go pop-splat. No zombie thing there, just plain old bad reaction to alien (unknown) organism. And yeah the camera aimed at Hud's face. Done to death (no pun). It would have been a better shot if it were to be pointing upward at a slight angle so as to see the beast pulling away from his body and then turning and moving away out of the camera's field of view. But you really don't feel as bad about him dying, well I didn't anyway. He was just too dumb for his own good. And he just could not shut up. Finally, if you think about it all, only the girl friend of the dead brother survived since she was on the other helo that took off first. I still think the Statue Of Liberty's head was a bit too small.
 

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