Topic: Cloverfield

[scottws]

Saw Cloverfield last night.  I didn't know what to expect really, as I don't know anyone that's seen it but I was pretty excited for it.  It seemed very mysterious, which intrigued me quite a bit.

Well, it blew my expectations out of the water.  It's filmed from a handycam a la The Blair Witch Project.  Unlike The Blair Witch Project it's actually a pretty good movie.  Also, it's a pretty clean video, not like what you get in TBWP.  The perspective really makes it pretty visceral and makes you feel like a part of the experience.  I was pretty tense the entire time.  I haven't been like that during a scary movie for a really long time.  Usually I laugh at them.

I'd give it a 4 of 5 stars on the Netflix scale.

[idolminds]

I agree, it was pretty awesome. The only thing holding it back for me was the typical "heroes make stupid decisions" that are in every scary movie.

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Chick calls you, cant move, and is bleeding? Probably not going to be able to save her in time. But hey, lets go deeper into the city where a giant mysterious monster is killing everyone and try anyway.

Theres her apartment building. Its falling over and actually leaning against the building next to it. I know, we'll climb the building next to it and hop over to the roof of her building despite the obvious dangers!

Other than a couple of things like that, I liked it.

[JacksRag(e)]

Yeah, it was one of my more favourite movies at the video store.  Unfortunately, most of the people I know who've seen it hated it and tell everyone around them that it was the worst movie they've ever seen only cause it didn't fit what they were expecting.  They say there's no monster, you can't even see it and that it's slow and boring.  Fortunately, they're morons and their opinions are irrelevant.

[scottws]

The only thing holding it back for me was the typical "heroes make stupid decisions" that are in every scary movie.

(click to show/hide)

Chick calls you, cant move, and is bleeding? Probably not going to be able to save her in time. But hey, lets go deeper into the city where a giant mysterious monster is killing everyone and try anyway.

Theres her apartment building. Its falling over and actually leaning against the building next to it. I know, we'll climb the building next to it and hop over to the roof of her building despite the obvious dangers!

To be fair, it was pretty clear that most of the characters knew the decisions were stupid.

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They argued with Rob on almost every one of them, except for the apartment building one.  And I figure they just thought they'd gotten that far through some crazy shit I'm sure it didn't matter to them anymore.

One of the things I really found interesting about the movie was the beginning.

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They really dragged out that party bit.  I kept wondering when shit would go down, but it just went on and on.  After it finally happened, I saw why they did that and it was really effective.  They sort of slowly draw you into the whole romance between Rob and Beth and make you forget that you're supposed to be watching a monster movie.  Then as soon as you least expect it... BAM!

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I also thought it was a neat touch during the pre-recorded segment at the very end where you see something fall into the ocean in the distance.

Very well done.

[iPPi]

I enjoyed it as well... though I felt a little bit of motion sickness near the end of the film.  Still, it was a pretty good movie.

[Cobra951]

I hate shaky-cam.  I think it's a fad, and hope it will pass.  Having said that, now I'm curious, and I want to see this.

[Quemaqua]

Funny, I thought it looked super-ultra-lame.  It seemed interesting at first, but the more I saw of ads and stuff the more it looked just awful to me.  Julia saw it and she thought it was decent, but nothing to write home about.  I guess this is just another instance of ads killing something for me when they're supposed to sell me on it.

[scottws]

Well, you should watch it anyway.

[idolminds]

I hate shaky-cam.  I think it's a fad, and hope it will pass.  Having said that, now I'm curious, and I want to see this.

Shaky-cam actually sells the idea here. Its supposed to be a tape found after this incident, so its supposed to looks like it was all shot handheld by some dude.

Now, shaky-cam in regular movies? Yeah, hope that kind of thing goes away. Shaky just for the sake of it sucks.

[Ghandi]

So the entire thing is shaky-cam? There's no way that I could sit through that. I'd rather tear out my fingernails.

[scottws]

Yes, 100% of the movie is from the perspective of a single videocamera carried by a few individuals.

[JacksRag(e)]

Usually, I'm not a big fan of the shaky-cam thing, but in this case it adds to the movie, I think.  It's really not as bad as you might think, the camera is mostly very steady, I thought, with the shaking mostly occurring when they're running.  It restricts what you can see and makes things a bit more tense.  I think it worked a bit better because of the cam style.

[scottws]

I wholeheartedly agree.  Without the cam perspective, this movie would have not nearly been as good.  Like Godzilla 2000 or something.

Don't let the perspective turn you away.  I suggest giving it a chance.

[Cobra951]

Shaky-cam actually sells the idea here. Its supposed to be a tape found after this incident, so its supposed to looks like it was all shot handheld by some dude.

Now, shaky-cam in regular movies? Yeah, hope that kind of thing goes away. Shaky just for the sake of it sucks.

For once, I agree.  I finally saw this.  It's very effective.  It really drew me in.  When I started getting queasy, I focused on the right speaker and watched the action with peripheral vision.  That didn't happen very often, mostly when things first got hot and heavy out in the street.  After that, I guess I got used to it.

They did a hell of a job in maintaining the illusion of a happenstance amateur video recording of all the events.  It's what elevated the film above the typical creature feature.  Half the time it almost felt like it was happening to me.

I have to agree with you about the stupid-decisions thing too.  But at least everyone made their own individual choice which way to go.

[scottws]

It's funny that you resurrected this thread.  I just re-watched this last week.  It started out from that MKV thread, I just got in a video-encoder mood and decided to check out how Cloverfield turned out in H.264.  At first I was going to just see how the video looked full-screen, but I ended up watching the entire movie.

[Cobra951]

That *is* funny.  I'm 10 months out of date here.  Weird how things work out.  Recently I emailed a friend I hadn't talked to in years.  The very next day my brother called me from Dayton.  He was covering a regional HS basketball game between St X and Fairmont, and he wanted to tell me that my friend's brother was coaching Fairmont!  I haven't seen him in 15 years.