Cloverfield.

[mr.jameswoods]

Sometimes its refereshing when a movie doesn't give you all the answers. It's truly a movie shot from the perspective of a bunch of friends stuck in Manhatten during a catastrophic attack.

Cloverfield 1 Humans 0

I could have dealt with that concept but the Youtube style of filming with the hand held camera just made watching unbearable in my opinion. It just looked cheap like one of those "Truth" anti-smoking ads; it had that feel to it. I know what effect they were going after but it just didn't work for me.

 

[mr.jameswoods]

Cloverfield grossed $18M last night, #1 at the box office. Projected to gross $52M for the weekend.

Not shabby for a movie made on a $25M Budget. Me see's Cloverfield 2 kicking into motion fast. I knew that when the second the movie ended......

The sad thing is we are going to get a barrage of even worse copycat films with similar hand-held camera views and constant shaking. Thanks a lot Cloverfield, I'm going to have to recycle old films for the next 3 years until this new fad dies out.

 

[Nors]

The sad thing is we are going to get a barrage of even worse copycat films with similar hand-held camera views and constant shaking. Thanks a lot Cloverfield, I'm going to have to recycle old films for the next 3 years until this new fad dies out.

This is nothing "new". It's Blair Witch on steroids with mega computer graphics 10 years later. My take is you are 40+ demo?

The audience and viral marketing crowd was the 30 something and younger. They reeled in the youth to this story and it worked.

I disagree on the fad, it was first person and different from the norm. I liked it a lot, you didn't. Lets track the $.... Just saw Cloverfield 2nd most searched today. There is a Buzz.

People love a good monster story, and there is enough here that might propel people to see this a second and third time....

Did you miss the Coney Island shot where something in the background crashed into the ocean. Per the online ARG for Cloverfield it may have been a satellite crashing? Cloverfield's entry to this world?

 

[DallasEast]

Just saw it. Love it. It's not a great movie, but as I told my wife after seeing it, it's good enough. Just a couple of personal takes:

• This movie took it to the next level beyond Godzilla (the Matthew Broderick version). If a giant monster attacked a large metropolitan area, THIS is how citizens, the government and the military would react. Finally, a giant monster movie that doesn't gloss over what would happen in reality--namely, there will be large loss of life, huge property damage and the military would have a final solution akin to it's either us or it. Human compassion be damned.
• Two thumbs up on the monster. Great, great concept. Very good special effects and the 'kiddies' were great too.
• The camera work was annoying, but bearable and fitting for the story.
• This movie shouldn't be compared to The Blair Witch Story I, II or ten million. Like I said earlier, it wasn't a great movie, but it was good. Blair was one of the most idiotic movies of all time in my book.
• These fairly unknown actors did a great job of playing ordinary folks who, from out of the blue, have their entire lives destroyed by a giant monster. I appalled J.J. Abrams for not casting any big names because it would've taken away from the reality theme.
• **SPOILER ALERT** Call me sick, but I was so happy when Hud bought the farm. I'll give Abrams his props, but I dislike people who run off at the mouth when they're nervous regardless of the immediate circumstances--and I REALLY hate nervous talking characters.
• I wished there was more detail in the movie about monster bite victims.
• The ending was perfect in my opinion and I do not feel like there will be a Cloverfield II, even though there is plenty of evidence to say otherwise. The evidence is similar to what happened in Godzilla and they haven't done a sequel of it yet :crossed:
• The one thing I didn't feel was genuine about the film were the mass evacuation scenes. I don't feel that they would have been as orderly as they were presented. Yes, there was panic, but it should have been worst.

I will definitely buy it for my DVD collection when it's released. The movie was well-worth the wait for it's wide screen release. Heck, I may settle for a good bootleg copy! :

 

[Crown Royal]

Oh yeah, I'm excited about Star Trek. I'd like for that franchise to be what it once was.

That being said, I'm sad they didn't get Shatner. I worry that this is going to feel like a kid movie or something.

 

[Yeagermeister]

I'll wait until it comes out on DVD.

 

[DemonBlood]

Cloverfield was freaking awesome! Been waiting to see a monster movie like this for years. I still can't describe what the monster looked like...But it was great looking. It gave me allot of 9/11 type vibes though which was a little scary but that's what Abrams was going for. Most realistic monster movie I have ever seen.

I see a few people didn't like it because they went into the movie blind thinking it was going to be some Micheal Bay Hollywood popcorn action movie. This was supposed to seem real. What, did you want the handheld shaky cam to all of a sudden turn into a Hollywood cam and start showing wide shots of the city? Go watch Godzilla 2000 for that. This is what would happen if you gave a kid in NY a camera during a monster attack. I'm sorry if he would rather run then keep the camera on the giant monster.

They can and probably will make a sequel. Thousands of more people in NY probably had cams or IPhones during the attack. Lots of stories. They also can go the Hollywood route and show a movie from the army's point of view.

 

[burmafrd]

Moster movies should never be taken as anything but fantasy's. Have to laugh at those saying it was trying for reality.
reality is that an Apache with a hellfire would blow its head right off. Or a A-10 with a Maverick. Or even a F16, F-18, F15E with a laser guided 1000 lb bomb with a delay setting so that it explodes INSIDE the monster. That kind of bomb can penetrate 10 ft of concrete- imagine what it would do to even the toughest of monster flesh.

 

[Route 66]

The dermis of the monster is 5 inches thick. There are only two major arteries that run up and down the entire length of the beast that feed its blood supply. Unless you sever one of these arteries, an explosive will not destroy it. Concrete is different than the Cloverfield beast. Concrete is hard but gives and the dermis of the beast acts like a bulletproof vest and will not allow any offending explosive device to penetrate past the first or second fatty layer.

At the most, it would anger it further. The only thing you can do is drop 17 tons of salt on it and after 20 hours, you would see its demise.

 

[DallasEast]

Cloverfield was freaking awesome! Been waiting to see a monster movie like this for years. I still can't describe what the monster looked like...But it was great looking. It gave me allot of 9/11 type vibes though which was a little scary but that's what Abrams was going for. Most realistic monster movie I have ever seen.

I see a few people didn't like it because they went into the movie blind thinking it was going to be some Micheal Bay Hollywood popcorn action movie. This was supposed to seem real. What, did you want the handheld shaky cam to all of a sudden turn into a Hollywood cam and start showing wide shots of the city? Go watch Godzilla 2000 for that. This is what would happen if you gave a kid in NY a camera during a monster attack. I'm sorry if he would rather run then keep the camera on the giant monster.

They can and probably will make a sequel. Thousands of more people in NY probably had cams or IPhones during the attack. Lots of stories. They also can go the Hollywood route and show a movie from the army's point of view.

I totally agree with the Michael Bay analogy. This wasn't another Transformers action movie. Abrams was shooting for a "What if" angle and I think he got it right.

The more I think about it, the less that I hope that they don't do a sequel. If the military truly killed 'Momma', they would do their best to eradicate the 'kiddies' during the next phase and I hate if their was a sequel based on that. Momma was tough. Several of the young folks offed the kiddies with axes or metal rods. They weren't so tough and if the sequel was based on them, that would suck, imo. And please! No 'Papa comes to avenge Momma' sequel angles! That's been overly done for decades.

Moster movies should never be taken as anything but fantasy's. Have to laugh at those saying it was trying for reality.
reality is that an Apache with a hellfire would blow its head right off. Or a A-10 with a Maverick. Or even a F16, F-18, F15E with a laser guided 1000 lb bomb with a delay setting so that it explodes INSIDE the monster. That kind of bomb can penetrate 10 ft of concrete- imagine what it would do to even the toughest of monster flesh.

Here's the thing though, burm. This was a movie. In reality, we know the damage real life weapons could inflict on a person or a tank or a whale or even a city, but the enemy here was an total unknown. It was a complete fabrication. What if in the creator's mind the creature--when fully grown--develops a hide that's tougher than 10 feet of concrete, etc.? Just saying.

 

[Nors]

I read that one of the writers acknowledged they planted a message at end of credits

a voice appearing to be Rob says "help us" Someone further translated the recording backwards "it's still alive"

And on sequel, who's to say it's only one monster in NYC? Who is to say NYC is only city attacked? Only country?

Writer alsp has said the Monster is a baby, scared, lost and mad throwing a tantrum. Based on a $50M opening weekend I predict a sequel. He ended Cloverfield leaving it wide up to a sequel. And he will have a copywrited interest in building up Value in Cloverfield as the Japanese company did with Godzilla.

 

[HogsRLegends]

Who created the monster? There was no mention of the origin of the monster in the movie. None.

 

[Nors]

Who created the monster? There was no mention of the origin of the monster in the movie. None.

It's all speculation - but based on the viral marketing campaign and the ARG game JJ Abrams created there is a lot of speculation on what MPG (Cloverfield) actually is.

Rob was going to Japan to market a product called "Slusho". His brother in film wears a Slusho shirt. There is a lot of speculation that drink was somehow related to ingredients obtained from this Monster. The company that owned Slusho, Tagruato built a oil mining rig off the East coast that was believed to be "mining Slusho" ingredients.

http://www.floridaventureblog.com/2008/01/cloverfield-building-arg-climax.html

Two weeks ago that platform was destroyed - by what is believed to be the MPG (Cloverfield)

There is speculation that this monster either was dormant and awoke and is of this earth. There was also a Tagruato satellite that crashed about a month age in the Atlantic. That may be what is captured in the background when they were filming in April at Coney Island.

That potentially brings Alien into play. Also writer recently said the monster was a baby, lost, confused and angry.

The side effects of taking too much Slusho is immediate happiness and then a crash to very violent aggressive behaviour. Also Tagruato was sending a tanker from rig area to NYC. It is pretty clear from movie that explosion was MPG destroying an oil tanker and it exploding. New also reported a oil tanker submerged.


Till sequel we won't know. I think it is alien.

 

[DallasEast]

It's all speculation - but based on the viral marketing campaign and the ARG game JJ Abrams created there is a lot of speculation on what MPG (Cloverfield) actually is.

Rob was going to Japan to market a product called "Slusho". His brother in film wears a Slusho shirt. There is a lot of speculation that drink was somehow related to ingredients obtained from this Monster. The company that owned Slusho, Tagruato built a oil mining rig off the East coast that was believed to be "mining Slusho" ingredients.

http://www.floridaventureblog.com/2008/01/cloverfield-building-arg-climax.html

Two weeks ago that platform was destroyed - by what is believed to be the MPG (Cloverfield)

There is speculation that this monster either was dormant and awoke and is of this earth. There was also a Tagruato satellite that crashed about a month age in the Atlantic. That may be what is captured in the background when they were filming in April at Coney Island.

That potentially brings Alien into play. Also writer recently said the monster was a baby, lost, confused and angry.

The side effects of taking too much Slusho is immediate happiness and then a crash to very violent aggressive behaviour. Also Tagruato was sending a tanker from rig area to NYC. It is pretty clear from movie that explosion was MPG destroying an oil tanker and it exploding. New also reported a oil tanker submerged.


Till sequel we won't know. I think it is alien.

Other than the favorite addition to the Cloverfield/******* page, I don't see any other connection with the Tagruato/Slusho angle. I can't find a link on the movie's official website to this "story arc". Is there a connecting link which speaks to this story arc on the Paramount site or Abrams' website or etc..?

 

[Nors]

Other than the favorite addition to the Cloverfield/******* page, I don't see any other connection with the Tagruato/Slusho angle. I can't find a link on the movie's official website to this "story arc". Is there a connecting link which speaks to this story arc on the Paramount site or Abrams' website or etc..?

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0geu7bZs5NHhkYBmMNXNyoA?p=cloverfield+arg&fr=slv8-yie7&ei=UTF-8

do a web search - jj abrams has verified connections
it's viral marketing


http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/index.php?f=227

the ultimate site on ARG - Cloverfield

 

[Nors]

http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1579793/story.jhtml

Nice read on Cloverfield and ARG viral marketing driving record January sales. What I am doing here is a small part of how this stuff spirals....

 

[DallasEast]

http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1579793/story.jhtml

Nice read on Cloverfield and ARG viral marketing driving record January sales. What I am doing here is a small part of how this stuff spirals....

Thanks for the links, Nors.

 

[zrinkill]

I saw it Friday night and thought it was pretty good ..... I loved that recent movies are not portraying our soldiers as the bad guys. (Transformers/Cloverfield)

 

[Nors]

"Cloverfield" a monster at box office
Sunday January 20 3:06 PM ET


"Cloverfield," a low-budget Godzilla-style horror movie, scared up a monstrous $41 million opening at the weekend box office in North America, almost twice the tally of the new romance "27 Dresses."

According to studio estimates issued on Sunday, "27 Dresses" opened at No. 2 with $22.4 million, while last weekend's champ "The Bucket List" fell to No. 3 with almost $15.2 million. The top-10 contained one other new release, "Mad Money," which opened at No. 7 with just $7.7 million.

"Cloverfield," a $25 million movie with a no-name cast from Paramount Pictures, set a record for a January release, surpassing the $35.9 million reissue of "Star Wars" in 1997.

ADVERTISEMENT



It will also set a record for the Martin Luther King holiday weekend. "Black Hawk Down" earned $33.6 million during the four-day period in 2002. Paramount said its movie will earn more than $47 million after the Monday holiday is included.

Box office observers had expected "Cloverfield" to open in the $20 million range for the three-day period, a little ahead of "27 Dresses." They largely discounted Paramount's unusual forecast last week that the order would be reversed.

While the two movies appeared to target completely different audiences delineated by gender, the positively-reviewed "Cloverfield" played more broadly than expected.

Paramount said men comprised 60 percent of the audience, and 55 percent of moviegoers were aged under 25. The audience for "27 Dresses" was three-quarters female, Fox said.

RAMPAGE ACROSS NEW YORK

"Cloverfield" marks a reunion between director Matt Reeves and producer J.J. Abrams, the creators of the cult TV show "Felicity." Seen exclusively through the lens of a camcorder, it follows a group of youngsters on the run from a monster rampaging across New York. Paramount, a unit of Viacom Inc, employed a word-of-mouth marketing campaign for the film, highlighting the image of a beheaded Statue of Liberty.

Fox spent the previous two weekends holding sneak previews of "27 Dresses," which stars "Grey's Anatomy" actress Katherine Heigl as a perennial bridesmaid. The News Corp-owned studio said the opening was "fantastic." The film held at No. 1 in Australia for a second week, it add

 

[ScipioCowboy]

Why all the hate and disdain for Blair Witch?

If you enjoyed Cloverfield, you should, at the very least, appreciate Blair Witch, which made first person, documentary-style film making an accepted and emulated form in fiction.

We can find the artistic impact of Blair Witch in a number of popular movies and television series--Cloverfield, Bourne, Battlestar Galactica, Friday Night Lights, etc.

Horror is my favorite film genre, and Blair Witch was an extremely effective horror movie. It followed the mantra that most truly frightending horror movies do: Show the monster as little as possible.

In most case, the images that our minds generate are far more frightening than anything the movie can show us. By my recollection, only one movie is an exception to this rule--Alien.