Cloverfield (2008)

By Dashel
in Movie Ratings

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Experienced

MytMowse

Posted
Posted
Ughh, me, too. I'm worried I'm going to have to pay another $12 just to see 15 seconds of the movie lol.

Glad I was looking in the background at that part of the movie. Once I saw that part of the flick I knew it had something to do with the Alien. Either it was gunna drop out of the sky or you'd see it far into the distance in the water peeping it's head out surveying the land.

Grand Master

AgEnTsMiTh

Posted
Posted
Here's three reviews that might change your mind: http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/review/1789, http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/10917, http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/10933. And the film has a 76% rating on the TomatoMeter @ RottenTomatoes (at the time of this writing).

You should give this a try. How many people here at Neowin have said that it is bad? 2-3 out of 7 pages isn't bad. The worst part about the film is the homemade video feel. While it is unique (in the fact that not very many films use this style and get away with it), it is hard on the eyes at times. But outside of that, the style of the film works because you makes you part of the film. You sit there and feel like, "Yeah, I could have filmed this event" or someone you know might have filmed this. You can only see what Hud can see, and that makes you immersed in the story even more so than any other monster film.

The other thing that I found a little annoying is there's to much opening; meaning when the film opens, the storyline that they throw you in (the people the film is about) takes way to long to get to the monster, or at least it felt that way to me. Now the reason they did that is because they want us to connect with these characters, but to be honest IMO we don't necessarily need to connect with these characters.

DVD won't do this justice, only a theater with true digital surround sound will do this film justice. I'm going back to see this film again probably next weekend, that's how much I enjoyed it, I didn't even buy Dead Silence on DVD, let alone see it twice in theaters :laugh:

If you do not connect with the main characters, how in gods name would you feel the intensity of the entire thing. Every movie, every book, etc. It is essential to connect with characters or you do not care of have feeling for anything that is going on.

15 to 20 min build up was natural and perfect and added to the entire film. You also have a clear understanding why they went to the building to get to the girl. If you knew no background on that, you would not get it.

Grand Master

goji

Posted
Posted

DVD won't do this justice, only a theater with true digital surround sound will do this film justice. I'm going back to see this film again probably next weekend, that's how much I enjoyed it, I didn't even buy Dead Silence on DVD, let alone see it twice in theaters :laugh:

Definitely. One of the key aspects was the shaking of the floor when the footsteps of the monster were nearby. It really added a lot to the experience and put you much further into the scene.

True digital surround sound? :p

O the joys of having serious HT equipment in your house. I'm sure DVD will do mighty fine, providing you have the gear to make it shine. :D

Since you guys are going crazy over this I'll have to see it on MLK day and then write up a lengthy review comparing it to the traditional monster sci-fi genre I love so much!

Enthusiast

bluezz

Posted
Posted
If you do not connect with the main characters, how in gods name would you feel the intensity of the entire thing. Every movie, every book, etc. It is essential to connect with characters or you do not care of have feeling for anything that is going on.

15 to 20 min build up was natural and perfect and added to the entire film. You also have a clear understanding why they went to the building to get to the girl. If you knew no background on that, you would not get it.

Personally I feel that in the first 15-20 minutes the director was trying to make the audience accustomed to the ameteur camera work and what to expect in the rest of the movie. After the first 20 minutes I was feeling dizzy enough and guess what BOOM comes the head of lady liberty lol :laugh:

Grand Master

se7en.hu

Posted
Posted

I just saw this last night at the cinema, i thought it was extrememly awesome, the way it was filmed and all, made you feel like you were there, as for the actual storyline, it was just a standard godzilla, war of the worlds type thing.

If they had made this movie with standard filming techniques it would have been the biggest piece of rubbish ever.

Plus yea i saw it in the cinema too with the loud sound and huge screen at V-Max so it added to it, it kept me entertained though :)

Mentor

astrokat

Posted
Posted

I started feeling faint and dizzy watching this movie and started sweating, i thought i was going to faint. I don't think it was because it was scary, but because of the camera views and suspense. The same thing happened when I watched blair witch, so i am positive it has to do with the suspense + camera views. Any psyc majors are welcomed to put their input here. I had to close my eyes through the last 25 minutes to get my bearings. I was really ****ed.

What I liked best about the movie is that it was the worse case scenario. It wasn't like "omg, we have to stop this thing." The monster showed NO mercy and was basically unstoppable. There was nothing positive what so ever. There was no "oh, if we can reach blah blah, we can do blah blah." No, it was like you mother f***ers are going to die. And the little spiders made them EXTRA screwed. This was an intense movie.

Grand Master

P!P

Posted
Posted

I can't believe I'm getting a little emotional reading their fake MySpace profiles. I'm such a pansy. But this picture of "Beth" is hot, if only she knew what would be into the ocean behind her...

http://a18.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images...da444cffac9.jpg

Grand Master

Hurmoth

Posted
Posted
If you do not connect with the main characters, how in gods name would you feel the intensity of the entire thing. Every movie, every book, etc. It is essential to connect with characters or you do not care of have feeling for anything that is going on.

15 to 20 min build up was natural and perfect and added to the entire film. You also have a clear understanding why they went to the building to get to the girl. If you knew no background on that, you would not get it.

I don't think you need to connect with those characters on a personal level because since they put you in the driver's seat (so to speak), you can invent your own along the way.

But I see what you're saying. I still think the build up was a little to much. It seemed to drag on a little to much, but that's just me. Maybe when I see it again, I won't feel the same way?

For those of you who are disappointed with the ending, I have to ask what exactly were you expecting? I think the ending was perfect for the storyline. First off, it isn't your typical Hollywood ending, which is great. Secondly, it is from the first person point of view, and considering the odds of people living when they're running towards the monster instead of trying to get away, well you figure they're going to probably die. Personally, I don't think they could have lived from the helicopter crash, but the ending was fit for a film designed to be a homemade movie.

Collaborator

rickbman

Posted
Posted

You know... the camera work didn't bother me that much but I still thought the movie pretty much sucked. The "relationship" that was a major part of the film was BORING. It wasn't at all interesting and didn't make me any more interested in the characters then I would have been had we just been thrown into the middle of the film with no previous knowledge of the characters. None of the characters were at all likable, so I pretty much wanted them to die... well except Marlena she was kind of cool. I got so bored in the beginning at the party, that when the attack finally came I looked over at my friend and said "Finally, now these annoying people can start dying."

None of the "scary" moments were at all scary... I saw them all coming... and that really disappointed me because I had actually heard that the movie was scary and intense. As soon as they went down into the dark subway I figured they were going to get attacked down there, and then when it finally happened they gave it to much build up that it didn't surprise or shock me. When they were flying over the monster in the helicopter and they were cheering because it was dead I just knew that it was going to jump up and hit the helicopter. Which brings up the question, if the pilot of the helicopter was supposed to be evacuating these people why was he just flying directly over the monster, why didn't he change course and get the heck out of there? Which then brings up the question, how did they survive the helicopter crash? The movie seriously should have ended with the helicopter crash, it would have made a lot more sense.

So, in short... characters weren't at all likable and the love story was dull. I never really felt that there was any suspense in the movie because all the scares were predictable. The only cool parts were when the monster was destroying the city and there really wasn't enough of that to justify an 84 minute length. And it is pretty sad when a movie is only 84 minutes and is unable to even justify that short length.

I think I would have enjoyed it more if instead of just following 1 group of people we followed a few groups. Perhaps seeing 3 different tapes that were found in different places around Manhattan and saw different things. That way there could have been less padding to actually get it up to feature length, and that is what I felt a lot of the love story was. Maybe not the whole love story, but it felt like a lot of it was just there to fill up time so the movie would be long enough for a theatrical release.

Explorer

stylemessiah

Posted
Posted (edited)
I can't believe I'm getting a little emotional reading their fake MySpace profiles. I'm such a pansy. But this picture of "Beth" is hot, if only she knew what would be into the ocean behind her...

http://a18.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images...da444cffac9.jpg

True, shes yummy

Try these:

Picture1

Picture2

Fansite - Plenty of Galleries and Videos :)

Ill let you decide how obsessive you wish to be by using google for any other sites :)

Edited by stylemessiah
Mentor

JAbad28

Posted
Posted

Hello fellow neowinians!

Anyways, I got back from watching cloverfield a few hours ago. I thought it was excellent myself, everything was great!

The beginning was pretty boring but it was pretty good, I got confused on who was the starting guy at first, which brother haha.

I have to say though hud or however you spell his name is, is funny.

The funniest part was the tunnel, when he was talking about the burning homeless, haha! Funny.. I cracked up, everyone did.

I agree with most of you, a lot of the movie was pretty boring. When they were just sitting there in the train station.

When they were climbing up the stairs, etc.. The cool thing is, is that while it was boring hud made it funny by coming up with jokes. I don't know who would make jokes during those times but it was funny, haha! Lightened up the mood a bit.

Overall great movie! 5/5 definitely would watch it again. Oh yeah! Definitely give props to the sound effects, awesome!

Oh and the ending, did they nuke the place? Was the HAMMERDOWN?

Experienced

The Watcher

Posted
Posted

In an interview, JJ Abrams said that the monster is a baby that had been sleeping in the water for more than a thousand years and just woke up and is totally clueless of what's happening so he's lost and he's violent. Anyways, at the end of the movie we see an object fall from the sky. Now, in one of the websites that were directly linked to Cloverfield before the movie came out, there was something about a satellite that stopped working and fell towards Earth, apparently this is what we see fall. Otherwise, JJ Abrams talks sh*t.

Did anyone also notice that the monster that eats Hud (do you see the pun here? HUD?) is actually smaller than the one that attacks the helicopter. Maybe there's actually two monsters!

I don't know if you guys stayed t'ill the end but there's an audio of someone saying "help us" but when you reverse the audio you can clearly hear the person say "It's still alive" here's a link: http://boomp3.com/m/bd034dfca370

Experienced

The Watcher

Posted
Posted (edited)
Oh and the ending, did they nuke the place? Was the HAMMERDOWN?
They didn't nuke the place, otherwise they'd never have gotten the videotape in the first place. The camera would have been most definately destroyed. The special effects team did a great job making the bombs and after effects really real that it's practically near impossible it being a nuclear strike. You'd have seen a white flash if it was. So no, at the end it's not a nuclear explosion. At the end of the movie, you can hear the guy saying "Help Us." but if you play it reverse, you can hear he clearly says "It's Still Alive." http://boomp3.com/m/bd034dfca370 Edited by Hurmoth
Grand Master

Ayepecks

Posted
Posted
Here's three reviews that might change your mind: http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/review/1789, http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/10917, http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/10933. And the film has a 76% rating on the TomatoMeter @ RottenTomatoes (at the time of this writing).

You should give this a try. How many people here at Neowin have said that it is bad? 2-3 out of 7 pages isn't bad. The worst part about the film is the homemade video feel. While it is unique (in the fact that not very many films use this style and get away with it), it is hard on the eyes at times. But outside of that, the style of the film works because you makes you part of the film. You sit there and feel like, "Yeah, I could have filmed this event" or someone you know might have filmed this. You can only see what Hud can see, and that makes you immersed in the story even more so than any other monster film.

The other thing that I found a little annoying is there's to much opening; meaning when the film opens, the storyline that they throw you in (the people the film is about) takes way to long to get to the monster, or at least it felt that way to me. Now the reason they did that is because they want us to connect with these characters, but to be honest IMO we don't necessarily need to connect with these characters.

DVD won't do this justice, only a theater with true digital surround sound will do this film justice. I'm going back to see this film again probably next weekend, that's how much I enjoyed it, I didn't even buy Dead Silence on DVD, let alone see it twice in theaters :laugh:

I tend to not trust professional reviewers when it comes to movies. I am interested in seeing where they fall, but only to see how it compares to my own opinion.

I think I'll stick with waiting for DVD. About 80% of the people in another forum I frequent who saw it hated it, and they even made an official 'Why Cloverfield Sucked' thread. I don't want to waste my $5-$10.

I definitely respect all the opinions in here, but when I've seen so many contradicting reviews, I tend to be hesitant to see a movie.

Grand Master

Kev1n

Posted
Posted

Don't follow the hype, set realistic expectations, and you won't think this movie "sucks".

Don't go in expecting steadycam, the entire film is shown shot using a indestructible handheld camcorder, but don't worry in many of the shots the cameraman has super-steady hands. :p I for one cant understand how many people supposedly threw up or felt like doing so.

Don't expect a proper movie ending, as this is basically a homemade video shot during the monster's attack on the city. Don't expect seeing too much of the monster. You would be lucky to catch a good glimpse of the monster if you were among the citizens in the movie. Same applies to what you see in this movie.

In fact, the most impressive thing is not the monster, it's the trail of destruction it leaves and the movie leaves you right in the thick of it... this is probably the closest a movie can bring you to a real disaster.

And yes, watch it in the cinema for the awesome sound effects.

8/10 from me.

Grand Master

Bubbabyte

Posted
Posted
I could see running into a burning building. But climbing into a burning, falling, 50 story building, with aliens running around? I guess I'd have to love her a loooooooot.

Given that this is not a realistic situation by any means.. but, if it were my wife or children, i most certainly would do anything i had to be with them. If you were to honestly put yourself in that situation, as ridiculous as it is, you have to think that even if the building is falling down, a few hundred pounds walking on top is certainly not going to make it crash down completely. Also, you have to figure, again given the situation, that you're pretty much F#&$%D either way, why not die trying to help your family or loved one.

Just my 2 cents.. but if it were me, i would do the same thing.

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