CLOVARFEEEEELD

[cleolinda]

1. I really liked it. I kind of thought I'd come out, like, FUCK YEAH HATERS, WHAT NOW?!, but... well, it was not an ideal viewing experience. We'll get to that.

My mother really wanted them to cut the surprise party stuff and put in MOAR MONSTAR, but then... she would. I'd read reviews that complained about the banality of the conversation in the first twenty minutes, but... dude, I thought that was the point. (How many parties have these people been to lately?) I thought the whole point was, these people are just as banal and chatty and gossipy as we are, and it's a just another normal night for OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! DID YOU SEE IT?! IT'S HUGE!!1!

Speaking of which, you see way more of the monster than I expected. You see it in frequent split-second glimpses; I don't know that you ever really get a really thorough look at it, although some wide aerial shots late in the movie when the gang is in a helicopter come close. (You know what it kind of reminded me of, actually? The cave troll in FOTR. I'm not sure why, exactly--just a sort of -ness about it.) Oh, and by the way, I vote that we name the monster Darwin, because he single... six-handedly removed some very, very stupid people from the gene pool. The stupid didn't bother me, though; panic--and, in Rob's case, obsession, I felt--can make people do stupid things. I thought Michael Stahl-David was very good at getting across this quixotic, mind-altering, mind-obliterating obsession with saving Beth because 1) he loved her and 2) they'd fought the last time he saw her. His friends went along because that's what friends do, you know? That's what friends are supposed to do, you can see them thinking, not grasping the enormity of what was going on around them, because that enormity--Darwin, if you will--is not the kind of thing your brain is prepared to accept. (See also: Marlena wandering the dust-filled street like a zombie after the first attack: "It was... eating... a group of people...") Even when the guns and the missiles are going off three feet away, I can still understand a total inability to process that Something Really Fucking Huge is laying waste to Manhattan. And really, I think you can argue that there was no real "right" thing for the gang to think of doing--stay near Rob's apartment and hole up, when the soldier mentions that the army may lay waste to all of Manhattan and give it up for lost? Cross the bridge and get away from the monster (which doesn't work)? Go underground to get away from the waste-laying (which doesn't work)? Allow the soldiers to evacuate you (which doesn't work either)? Obviously there were people who did get out alive, but there's also a number of not-saving-Beth options which weren't or wouldn't have been any better. What I'm saying is, Our Heroes were stupid, but it's a situational kind of stupid that I can understand. Kind of.

And of course, now I really want to see it again so I can watch for the monster, now that I know when we see him.

2. As for the format of the movie, what I love is that the MySpace citizen-journalist/famewhore generation (of which I'm part, really) makes it completely believable that someone would be fleeing a giant monster, drop a camera, and run back to get it. This movie could not have been made even five years ago, but now--again, it's a brand of stupid that I can totally believe.

3. This was the closest I have ever come in my entire life to getting up, walking up to the back of the theater, and telling someone to SHUT THE FUCK UP. There was a gaggle of young teens--thirteen or fourteen years old, maybe? About a dozen of them--to my upper right, and then another clutch, a bit older, to my left, lower down, and Sister Girl nearly got up to administer a beatdown herself. The group behind us was the worst: "Ewwww, a NUDIE PART!" (there was no actual nudity); "That was a BAD WORD!" ("douchebag"). There was a long silence in the last, oh, fifteen minutes of the movie, which they spent shrieking inanities (this was the point when Sister Girl actually whipped her head around and half got up out of her seat). The reason I didn't get up--I actually was tempted to just turn around and bellow at them--was because I didn't want to look away from the screen, much less go get a manager. And the fact that I hate confrontation and still wanted to actually fuck their shit up should suggest how deeply obnoxious they were, and I didn't even want to do that to the preteen girls giggle-gossiping and texting their way through Order of the Phoenix.

4. You know how people joke about Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons? Hand to God, I actually saw him tonight. He had two buddies with them, all three of them with carefully nurtured stubble, and as they left the theater, I heard him say, "If they had really done the research, they would have known that an EMP [there was an EMP?] would have erased the entire tape."

5. The Star Trek trailer is bullshit. Don't even bother, if that's what you're going for. It's a bunch of guys in goggles soldering the Enterprise together. There's no footage at all, and it lasts about five seconds.

6. I stayed for the after-credits thing, but I have no idea what it was (I mean, I read somewhere what it was supposed to be, but I couldn't actually hear it) because the Lower Leftketeers WOULD NOT SHUT UP. JESUS H. CHRIST, YOU WAITED THROUGH THREE HUNDRED YEARS OF OVERWROUGHT MONSTER OPERA TO SEE THE CREDIT COOKIE, AND THEN YOU TALKED THROUGH IT? "Hey! Run that back!" STAB STAB STAAAAB.

I actually liked the overwrought monster opera. I'm just saying.

Comments

[notashamed.livejournal.com]

I just got home from it--LOVED IT. And agree with you on the naming Mr. Monster Darwin. Well done. I think the beginning part was important because otherwise you don't give a crap about who these people are and who cares if they get hurt or die? I wouldn't have wanted there to be much MORE of it, though.

I was quite lucky to be in a theater of people who didn't talk too much, so I didn't have that to deal with, but that being said I STILL didn't catch what was at the end of the credits. So, there's that.

[disturbed-kiwi.livejournal.com]

I began to get bored of the character stuff by the time the moster appeared, but only just, so to me it was well timed. But I figure the whole thing is aboslutely about those characters and their stories, it just so happens to have a monste rin the background, rather than the usual 'humans versus monster' setup that doesn't need such engaging characters because they aren't individually important.





Why did she POP!!!!! What about the flea bites does that!

[christwise.livejournal.com]

EEE! You're back!

So what's with the sleeping chick?

It was definitely freaky to know exactly where they were, to have been there in person, for some of those scenes. Freaky in a cool, awesome way.

And my, that camcorder sure does record sound well. :P

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

You mean on the couch at the party? I was told to look out for her, and then... I totally didn't know who she was.

[thunderphoenix.livejournal.com]

Dangit, five seconds of the Enterprise being soldered together is enough for me!

Glad to hear this was good. Like I said before, I love the kaijus. I won't get to see it til next week at least.

[caitiedid.livejournal.com]

I caught a late afternoon matinee, and was lucky enough to have a crowd that didn't talk. I knew there was something after the credits, but I didn't know what - I was half-hoping it would be a video of some professorial-type guy in front of a big chalkboard, explaining what the monster was and where it came from, just so I could point and laugh at the people who had already left - and it just sounded like garbled radio noise. I figured it was something backwards, but I couldn't tell what.

Guy Behind Me: That's bullshit.
Me:

[naeelah.livejournal.com]

I was kinda hoping the after credits thing would be, like, a map of the US or the world -- a satellite photo showing the extent of the destruction. I just want to know how far this thing went before it went down. Or does it ever go down? I know that's part of the fun of the ending, but I want to knooow!

[ter369.livejournal.com]

Oh, Cleo, I urge you to develop a mighty "SHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" that you can deliver without turning your gaze from the screen. I worked on that after seeing the very first Star Trek film, the viewing of which was interrupted for the full length of the film by the woman holding a crying baby in the front row. Though I told her before I left, thanks for ruining the film for everyone, including your poor, uncomfortable child.

I've shushed people at Les Miz, movies, author Q&As, the opera, and a guitar concert where the knitting needles clicks from the audience were at odds with the music. Maybe I'm annoying, but I didn't start each rudefest.

I've had it with the texting through films. I went to The Golden Compass prepared, if there were texters doing their thing before it began, to stand up and ask everyone to please not do that during the movie, because yes, the lights are distracting and you're an idiot.

Pfnarrrr.

Last movie I saw

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

There was an anti-texting message from the management before the movie started. One person did it anyway, but at least the theater wasn't totally full of people clicking away.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

So, excising the "mythology" -- good move, or no? I've heard mixed reviews -- those that traditionally want more monster, more answers, seem gravely disappointed, and yet those that keep their eyes on the character arc seem overall quite pleased.

Anybody blow chunks at your theater? From reading my f-list it sounds like those thusly afflicted can get in on the ground floor of a class-action suit not seen since the Blair Witch Communal Horfening of 1999.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

My understanding was that the mythology was never actually going to be in the movie, and that the "you never know where it came from or where it went" was part of the premise of the movie itself. Instead (as I understand it), the mythology was online as viral marketing and to engage net-savvy people who would dig it. Five bucks says they release more pictures or story or whatever in the next couple of weeks, too. It's kind of having your cake and eating it too, that way.

As for it not being in the movie--I liked that, because I think the odds were against them finding a way to work an origin story in without it being totally lame. To me, it was far braver and more effective to just go, to hell with it. That's the kind of thing you find out in real life, if at all, in the days and weeks after a disaster, and as such, really couldn't be fit into six or seven hours of running and screaming.

[nanet.livejournal.com]

If the clip from the end is played backwards, you can hear someone (likely Rob) whisper, "It's still alive." Which has just FREAKED ME RIGHT THE HELL OUT.

Google "Cloverfield whisper" and you'll find it.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Oh, you can hear it at the link I put in, which is how I knew to listen for it. And then couldn't hear it--not even what he said right-way forward. Asshats.

[astorae.livejournal.com]

And here I thought it'd be a glorified Godzilla movie. I might have to see it now.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's definitely a very different take on the genre. I mean, in a lot of ways, it really is a Godzilla movie. It's just from the perspective of the people who run and scream and get trampled underfoot. It's all handheld-by-characters camera work, like Blair Witch; you don't see or find out anything that they don't. Occasionally the characters stand and watch TV footage of what's going on, but that's actually pretty effective--the footage doesn't actually give them any information, because no one knows anything at that point. And they use the digital video camera and the fact that the guy holding it doesn't know how to work it to great effect--you actually get "flashbacks" from the tape he's recording over.

[pygmymetal.livejournal.com]

I had the same reaction to it you did. Except my daughter literally CLIMBED ONTO MY LEG!! She's 6 inches taller than me. That's a LOT of leg on me.

During the tunnel sequence, I turned to her and told her not to look. Period. And at the end, I told her do not look. Why? A. She FLIPPED out when she first saw it's face and 2) she had to go pee at the critical info drop where the TV person was saying 'it's dropping something' so she wouldn't have understood or been prepped for 'the horror that is dark tunnels' in a movie such as this.

I freakin loved it. To me, it was perfection. No, I don't need to know what it was, where it came from. It was a witness perspective. And the stupid stuff was absolute brilliance.

I loved it. I cannot stop saying that!!!

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I loved the stupidity, because you could see the other characters being like, "WTF ARE YOU INSANE?," but they were so loyal to him--and probably afraid he'd get himself killed--that they followed in spite of their better judgment. And anyone who's ever worked in retail can tell you: people are stupid. It's believable.

[viorica8957.livejournal.com]

*is very determinedly not looking at spoilers because the movie just had to come out on the weekend before exams*

This is actually the first time you've come close to yelling at some idiot who talked through a movie? Your self-control is far, far better than mine. My head was whipping around every five minutes during Sweeney Todd because the people behind us kept going,"Ohh, that's the Narnia trailer!" or "Hey! It's That Guy!" But at least they weren't as bad as the people at Blood and Chocolate who were yelling into cellphones and waving laser pointers at the screen. Fnarr.

[skyblade.livejournal.com]

I'm a little surprised at how much people seemed to hate the ending, or get that it was essentially "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Stomped". The only thing I didn't like about it was I saw it coming--the government label pretty much spelled an ending of "rock falls, everyone dies" (literally), and I was also pretty sure having the original footage show up meant the last shot was going to be Rob and Beth in happier times. (By the way, it was weird to see my name bandied about, especially when the cast looked a lot like people I knew)

[christwise.livejournal.com]

"rock falls, everyone dies" (literally)

That is exactly what I thought when that happened. It's funny cause it's true!

[padawansguide.livejournal.com]

I wish I could see the movie, but what with the motion sickness, it's not going to happen.

However, the rudeness reminded me of when my friends and I saw the 2nd Matrix movie (which you might remember ends rather abruptly).

We're watching the movie at this megaplex with stadium seating, and all of a sudden, some people below and towards the front start creating a scene - someone starts yelling "Did you touch my cousin? Did you f'ing touch my cousin?" and there's all this noise and commotion, and people are yelling "shut up" at them, and I'm trying to concentrate on the movie - but it was impossible not to be distracted by the yelling. I look back up at the screen, and the credits are rolling. The ENTIRE theater missed the end of the movie and everyone was PISSED. We got free movie tickets out of it though.

[naeelah.livejournal.com]

I think it's hilarious that your subject is "Clooovarfieeeld!" because as soon as I left the movie, I whipped out my cell phone to make a voice post just to say, "Clooooveeerfieeeld!"

I heard the thingy at the end clearly, but I have no idea what it said. I asked other people in the theater, but no one got it.

And LOVE for the overwrought monster opera. After the credits ended, this one guy in the back let out this loud wail, saying, "That was the worst 5 minutes ever!" His friend immediately argued, "Dude, those were the best credits ever!"

[futureperfect.livejournal.com]

The monster opera was awesome! The first thing I did when I got home after making a "holy shit guys, cloverfield" post was try and find the soundtrack or something. I WANT THE OPERA, YO.

[futureperfect.livejournal.com]

We went the easier route and just renamed him Cloverphil. Of course, this preceded a whole series of Cloverfield/other fandom cross overs. I think at one stage it was crossed over with Dr Phil and he because Dr Cloverphil. Yes, it was all a bit silly by then.

You know what I'm pissed off that I missed?

The last scenes on the tape where it's Rob and Beth at Coney Island, apparently when the camera is panning over the ocean you apparently see something large fall down into the ocean. I MISSED THAT. I WANT TO SEE IT NOW THNX.

But I loved it so much. Even though you know it's going to end badly since the government found the tape, when they were in the chopper (and seriously, wtf. Beth was running around really, really well for someone who'd had a lump of rebar through her shoulder not that long before) I was all "WHY ARE YOU FLYING THERE FLY AWAY FROM THE MONSTER YOU MORON I KNOW THEY FOUND THE TAPE IN CENTRAL PARK, MAYBE IT JUST FELL OUT THE WINDOW. :( :( :(" It's amazing what you'll go through to try and delude yourself sometimes even when you know it's just going to end badly. :D

I thought the party could have been shorter, but I know why it was as it was. Besides, it was meant to be someone's video tape... you get that kind of shit.

I loved seeing the Statue of Liberty's head though. And the people out there with their video cameras.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hee, Dr. Cloverphil.

I saw the thing fall, and it was very--you know those videos supposedly of UFOs, and it's like a speck flying across the screen that could have been anything? It was like that. Right side of the screen, falling into the water. I guess it's large, but from that distance, you can't tell what it is at all. I'm sure it'll be on YouTube within minutes.

[quamicauzilot.livejournal.com]

Darwin? Yes!

[fengi.livejournal.com]

For me the best parts were the clear references to other films - Darwin is clearly based on Beast From 50,000 Fathoms, the army is at times directly out of old Godzilla movies and the building sequence echoes the Poseidon adventure AND MI:3 - but seen from the limited eyewitness participant viewpoint instead of an omniscient camera. It's a really neat trick and I hope the do it again, perhaps with a film that starts like the Office and ends up like, I dunno, MirrorMask or something.

In fact I found myself wishing for some Office style scripting in this as the dialogue wasn't entirely natural anyway so a bit more wit would've been nice.

The main thing which bugged me is you got the usual JJ Abrams equation of The Prettier The Protagonist The Less The Personality as there seemed to be little there for our hero and friends to be so determined to save her except that she's just that hot. I mean seriously, could they not have given her a few lines with snark?

[serizawa3000.livejournal.com]

Darwin is clearly based on Beast From 50,000 Fathoms

The look of the monster (what I've seen... without, er, having seen the movie... I will at some point, but I just want to see what the monster looks like already... it's surprising that an official image hasn't been leaked) makes me think of Ray Harryhausen's creatures, oddly enough... like the Ymir from Twenty Million Miles to Earth, or even the Kraken from Clash of the Titans?

[falco-conlon.livejournal.com]

There was a gaggle of young teens--thirteen or fourteen years old, maybe? About a dozen of them

KILL THEM. KILL THEM WITH FIRE. Speaking as someone who once was one of those obnoxious 14-year-old girls in the back of the theater, there is nothing worse.

[urox.livejournal.com]

There is worse. When you're the only one in the theater that tells them to KNOCK IT OFF... and then they reply loudly "we weren't doing anything." Fucking liar kids are even worse.

[not-tragedi.livejournal.com]

See, I had to leave the theater to throw up (not fun in a small bathroom stall) then go back in. I like it, but I wasn't blown away. It really had more hype than type in my opinion. But, I'm sorry, best line ever:

"I just keep thinking it would be really funny if a burning homeless guy popped out right now."

[kth524.livejournal.com]

Oh, me too. Luckily my theater was straight across from the bathrooms. And also, once I got in there, I realized that I had grabbed the first stall. Yeah. The one that DOESN'T FLUSH. Oops.

[gravities.livejournal.com]

LOL comic book guy. No real interest in Cloverfield, but glad you enjoyed it.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hee, yeah. I can understand caring or not caring or liking it or not, but... "CLEARLY that is why this entire movie COULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED" was all you got out of it? Really?

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

It's a bunch of guys in goggles soldering the Enterprise together.

But...they're the Welders of the Future!

And re Cloverfield: the promos make it look like an urban The Blair Witch Project. As TBWP gave me a massive headache I guess I'll be skipping this one.

[futureperfect.livejournal.com]

I found it was a lot easier to watch than TBWP. It was like what they should have been, but done properly. For me, anyway, there were enough long, still moments just when I was starting to get a little dizzy with the camera movement. I guess it depends on how sensitive you are to that kind of thing.

[somewhatmoot.livejournal.com]

I really think Unfiction's Mister Grumpy Pants needs to stay for the name.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I had a bunch of teeny bopper morons when I went, too. Jesus christ, I feel old know.

I HATE YOU JJ ABRAMS!

Did you catch the splashy splashy at the Coney island bit?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, although it was too small for me to make out what it was.

[somewhatmoot.livejournal.com]

Oh, and the ROAR! music during the credits is like, really really really awesome. I've been searching for it desperately for the past 24 hours.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Well, if you find it, let me know.

Ya know...

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

I think I'd like the Star Trek trailer better than this movie, no matter how short and disappointing it is.

[rorqual.livejournal.com]

Re: Comic Book Guy - I suspect the EMP comment relates to the idea that Manhattan would have been nuked by the military (which I don't think was ever stated - that the city would be obliterated, yes, but not that they'd nuke it per se.) Hence, possible EMP.

Re: Chatty Bastards - I had those too, and so missed the post-credits part. Best was, they were mainly bitching about how bad the movie was. Here's a question - if you hated the movie, then why did you sit through the credits?!? Just...go get a hobby or something.

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

We had the same thought - Assuming that "Put the hammer down" meant "nuke the site", then there would be an EMP and hence fry the card (unless the rebar in the bridge created a partial faraday cage and then....yeah - we need to get out more). But if it was just a whole series of bunker-busters, then no EMP.

[kth524.livejournal.com]

[warning for very very mild spoilers]

I really enjoyed it. I mean, I didn't come out being like, "ZOMGBESTMOVIEEVAR" but it was still pretty sweet. In that little dead space between the end of the movie and the credits, a guy behind us just quietly said, "I want my nine bucks back." Not obnoxiously yelling or anything, but still loud enough so everyone in the entire theater can hear. But I thought it was pretty good. Plus, we had a really good audience. It was like a midnight premiere audience, almost. Everyone laughed in the right places and no one really talked that much. It was pretty cool.

However, I think I'm going to wait until it goes on DVD to see it again. I had to leave the theater in the last, like, ten minutes or so, I think? I left almost immediately after they rescued Beth, I saw them heading toward the door. But I came back in time to see them shooting at the monster and Hud being like, "YUSS" and then the monster being like, "JUST KIDDING." But, yeah. Motion sickness. I NEVER get sick at the movies, I mean, I don't even get sick in the car. I wasn't even eating anything there. But after all the running and the jerking, I just got uncontrollably shaky and hot and bleh. So now I'm sitting here waiting for my Pepsi to go flat.

But overall, I liked it. Not the best thing ever, but I think it lived up to the hype.