Cloverfield

[The Nth Doctor]

I enjoyed the film a lot, even though I agree that the characters didn't fit the bill for "heroic" characters as we've come to think of them. Which was, I think, really the POINT.

I don't care if the characters are heroic or not, but I do care if they're interesting. Only Hud had any real redeeming qualities to him but he was saddled with the "dimwitted goofball" character type. Characters can be interesting in an action scenario without be heroic.

 

[Cary L. Brown]

I enjoyed the film a lot, even though I agree that the characters didn't fit the bill for "heroic" characters as we've come to think of them. Which was, I think, really the POINT.

I don't care if the characters are heroic or not, but I do care if they're interesting. Only Hud had any real redeeming qualities to him but he was saddled with the "dimwitted goofball" character type. Characters can be interesting in an action scenario without be heroic.

Fair enough... but it's a matter of taste, not a matter of the movie being "bad" as much as "not your type of movie."

As side note here... what's the deal with everyone putting POLITICAL TROLLING into their signature lines? It's almost as if you're trying to pick fights with every post, isn't it?

Seriously... how well received will it be if those of us here who aren't liberal start posting stuff illustrating the low IQ of Al Gore, or the idea that Obama's political ascendency comes from being a disciple of Saul Alinsky (which is why H. Clinton originally wanted him to be her VP, 'til he ended up passing her by) and his... well... "less than mainstream" philosophies (gotta love his dedication to "Rule for Radicals," don'cha?)

Seriously, guys... and MODS IN PARTICULAR... this isn't a "political bbs" as has been pointed out OVER AND OVER. When politics which aren't the same as the mods get thrown in, they get called "trolling" sometimes, I've noticed, or the thread gets shut down for having "gone off topic." And you know what? I agree... they ARE off-topic.

But c'mon now... putting "George Bush kills kittens for fun" is about the same as saying "Barak Obama serves Satan." Well, except that (with him being an Alinsky disciple, and Alinsky having dedicated his most well-known work to Lucifer) there's actually at least a TINY hint of truth to the latter one.

 

[Timby]

words

Take it to QSF if you have a problem with it. Don't de-rail a Cloverfield thread.

 

[Cary L. Brown]

words

Take it to QSF if you have a problem with it. Don't de-rail a Cloverfield thread.

I have a problem with it. I'm not sure what you mean by "QSF." But it's getting really tedious, and I'd hope the folks who RUN this place would make a note of it and recognize it for what it is... trolling.

The people posting, with this in their sigs, are the ones "derailing" the thread, in other words. They're just being sneaky about it. I'm asking you to address it, that's all.

 

[sidious618]

I loved the film. I thought it was fantastic and the internet connections were a bunch of funness.

 

[sidious618]

I have a problem with it. I'm not sure what you mean by "QSF."

http://trekbbs.com/forumdisplay.php?f=17

 

[Ethros]

Next you'll be saying people's avatars derail threads. I don't even look at most peoples sigs


As for Cloverfield, I enjoyed the movie, but I've only seen it once so far when it came out, I keep meaning to get the DVD but I'm gonna wait till the price goes down a bit.
From what I remember I thought the characters were pretty dumb, going back for the skank girlfriend who cheated on him or something? Should have left her to die. Once it got to the part where they arrived at Columbus Circle and they said "ok lets climb all the way to the top of this skyscraper, and then jump over to the next one, climb all the way down that one till we reach her apartment, of which she may not actually even be there, all the while avoided a huge scary monster..."
By that point I thought these people really deserve to die

 

[Miss Chicken]

I enjoyed cloverfield when I saw it at the cinema but I imagine it would lose a lot of its impact on the smaller scene.

I agree that the party scene was too long and the film would have benefitted by some of that being cut.

 

[Brikar99]

I wasn't really looking for depth of characterization in this, and I don't believe the movie was really aiming for it. It's a well-made little sci-fi action piece, and interesting experiment in style.

 

[Samurai8472]

From what I remember I thought the characters were pretty dumb, going back for the skank girlfriend who cheated on him or something? Should have left her to die. Once it got to the part where they arrived at Columbus Circle and they said "ok lets climb all the way to the top of this skyscraper, and then jump over to the next one, climb all the way down that one till we reach her apartment, of which she may not actually even be there, all the while avoided a huge scary monster..."
By that point I thought these people really deserve to die

I just assumed it was part of their yuppie-ish behavior

 

[Goji]

My favorite part of this movie is the notion that one of the main characters could spend the first 2/3rds of the movie impaled on a spike, and after said spike is forcibly removed from her shoulder, is ready to spend the rest of the movie sprinting around.

There's also the helicopter that decides to fly directly over not only a giant killer monster, but one that's in the process of being bombed.

I also like the scene in which the camera guy is eaten. How a creature that big can appear out of nowhere just in time to eat a guy, and then disappear so completely that his friends feel perfectly safe to rush over to what remained of his body (though they seemed far more interested in recovering his camera) seconds later.

But hey, the movie had its moments. It won't go down in history as one of the great giant monster films, but it could have been worse.

 

[Reverend]

Well to be fair by the end of the movie the film makers own the audience a good look at the thing and at least the false hope that it's dead. Otherwise they'd be coping out like the basement scene in "Blair Witch".

Besides, the premise of the movie is that the tape was found in central park by the military and is probably one of hundreds of tapes to come out of the incident. This just happens to be the most interesting one they could find.

 

[Cali]

Once it got to the part where they arrived at Columbus Circle and they said "ok lets climb all the way to the top of this skyscraper, and then jump over to the next one, climb all the way down that one till we reach her apartment, of which she may not actually even be there, all the while avoided a huge scary monster..."
By that point I thought these people really deserve to die

QFT. This really bugged me too, and I kind of hoped that the building was going to collapse on them at some point.

 

[sidious618]

It's just as good at home, if not better, if you have the surround sound.

 

[Orintho]

It was really slow and you could hardly see the monster.

I like seeing the monster not just bits and pieces of it.

Perhaps, but a lot of suspense is lost when there is no mystery or build-up around the monster. This is why a film like 'Alien' is truly frightening but a Godzilla film (or even an Alien successor like 'Aliens 3') is not.

To 'Cloverfield' - I liked it although I think it may lose some of its impact on the small screen. But barring the few dumb moves by characters (conventions to forward the plot that we see in most horror films), I thought 'Cloverfield' was clever in presenting a modern-day Godzilla film.

 

[TGTheodore]

It won't go down in history as one of the great giant monster films, but it could have been worse.

Yes. It could have been even longer.

--Ted

 

[Aragorn]

Just watched this movie. It entertained me. It did what it set out to do, even if it was stupid in a lot of places. However, because of 80 straight minutes of shaky cam, I want to vomit! I had to eat something afterward to get my bearings back.

At least it didn't have the cliches of the brother miraculously coming back to save the day or the first person in the chopper being the one to die. I think the ending was appropriate.

And even though I liked it, I'll never ever watch this movie again. Perfectly good money wasted on a Blu-Ray title.

Definitely won't want to rent Blair Witch now.

 

[God Magnus]

I saw "Cloverfield" opening day with a packed crowd. Everyone enjoyed it a lot. Laughs in the right places, screams when scary stuff happened and a lot of "Holy sh*t!" comments at the right moments. I will admit however that I believe part of my experience was enhanced by the fact that I saw it IN NYC. It added a layer to the film that made me feel like I was going to see it when I stepped out of the theater. The location shooting helped a lot as well.

 

[SeerSGB]

For a monster movie, it was stupid fun, but that's about it. I enjoyed the same way I enjoy Godzilla movies: Watching some big, pissed off creature trashing a major city. Anything more than that, meh.

 

[JuanBolio]

I thought it was pretty slick, if a bit too short. I didn't really have a problem with the opening sequence. I would've liked to have heard a bit more about the monster, either from the newscasts or from the military, but its cool that he's a mystery. I can wait for the sequel.

As for Rob and Beth... I'm betting they survived. Though I wonder why they settled on sheltering under a bridge as opposed to the basement of a building or the subway.

He's got six limbs... two massive forelimbs, two rear "walking legs" and another two arms in between which don't seem to do much (but remember, this is a seabottom creature, so they may be associated with that in some fashion).

I read or heard that the vestigial "limbs" were actually feeding tubes through which he could suck material off the ocean floor (or people) right into his stomach. There was going to be a scene where he uses them in the film, but it got cut.