CLOVERFIELD- Post Release Discussion - Page 7

So I took my brother to see it last night, for my second time, and he had all the same complaints that most people around here did. Characters, actions, etc.

For me, all of those issues had no negative affect on me. I watch it in awe that they made a monster movie from a single first-person perspective. I can't think of any other movies, besides Blair Witch, that have attempted an entire movie from this perspective. And Blair Witch was a much simpler story, that was easy to make.

Yes, the characters did some dumb things, but I was more interested in how everything was turning out than to pick apart character development or actions. I mean, the story pretty much covers motivations, so I just accepted whatever these people did.

I'm surprised there hasnt been much discussion about how the movie was made. There are so many different filmmaking aspects that go into making this an entirely first person perspective, that whatever failings the director/etc. had with characters, they more than made up in with style.

They were'n't hipsters. They were kind of, bro-ish if anything. Especially Hud and Rob's brother. I think they were post frat boys with money.

Lily and Beth seemed like normal people. Normal, super gorgeous people. Marlena seemed like Hud bothered her.

The production notes, I linked to a page or so back, hinted at some of the techniques. But I can't wait for the DVD.

Maybe I'm a moron, where is this link?

I'd love to see some massive extras on this DVD when it comes out.

Here it is.

Enjoyed this flick. I was checking my pulse about 2/3s in.

Some people are nit picking this movie way too much.

Geography is all wrong => There was 70+ minutes of movie/footage out of roughly 7 hours of monster-fu. Of course it's going to seem like the monster was fast and the main characters moved around quickly.

Using "viral stuff" => Don't. It's fun, but I believe this detracts from the "mystery" of the creature. I thought the 1 second of splash down footage at the end was more than enough for providing some sort of idea for an origin.


My own gripes:

Hasn't anyone ever heard of "steady cam"? I have an old VHS-C camcorder about 12 years old, and it had a steady cam feature. It was hard not to film without it.

Hated the characters, they seemed more of a vehicle to get to the monster and show what it did.

Pointless having the mites/minions. Only reason for this was keeping the movie going in certain areas.

I got to see it tonight...I did enjoy it just a bit too short for me

and towards the end, when Rob and Beth are in the chopper leaving, why the hell does the chopper take the "lets view the monster tour" One would think they pilot would have gotten them the hell out of there.

I have a question about the movie if someone can help me out. When our "heroes" reach the military post after they've gone through the subway, and they realize that the girl Hud likes (can't remember her name) is "infected" and they grab her and throw her into the tent. My question is does her head explode or do they shoot her because she's infected??

Loved:the creature design, the overture during the credits
Hated:everything else not ivolving the creature on screen

Utterly disapointed.

Her whole torso swells out and bursts.

Question: do oil tankers pass that near to the Statue or am I to assume them monster dragged it over from out at sea and left it there once it hit land?

As far as I could tell, the tanker was in the harbor yet was a completely independent incident from the beheading of Lady Liberty. I'm assuming that the monster Falcon-punched the shit out of the statue - probably wrong, but whatevs.

I saw this yesterday and loved the hell out of it. Even the first 20 minutes weren't too grating, though the DJ at the party apparently adored Kings of Leon - not that there's anything wrong with that.

The camera work wasn't half as awful as I was expecting, and the two friends I dragged with me surprisingly agreed.

After we left, one of the friends mentioned that she would have liked to see way less of the monster, especially in the beginning, and how a lot of the shots of the monster before the big reveal at the end could have been excised and replaced with more subtle destruction shots and she would have found it more suspenseful.

It made sense to me, but I was also not a huge fan of the parasites - like someone on here already mentioned it seemed like they were just there to keep the story going after slow parts, and while their contribution to the Marlenasplosion was appreciated (that was kind of a cool little bit), I'd like to see where they would have gone with the project without them and how that would have affected the audience's perception of the film with those few changes put in there.

It was so much fun, though.

This is funny;

"As part of a “post-birth ritual,” as Abrams describes it, the monster is seen early on scratching his back on a building (destroying it in the process), to remove a layer of parasites that are set loose to wreak their own havoc on the city."

When I heard the snippet of Gorillaz towards the end of the party sequence, I wanted everyone to die. Thankfully, the director and crew agreed with me.

My first thought after this ended was that there was nothing about this film that wouldn't have worked if it had been shot traditionally and simply stayed focused on the same characters. Just don't cut away to anything, stay with them the whole time. By the time we get to Beth's building and we're getting shaky cam, strobes, and sirens, I was like "Jesus, are you trying to make us sick?"

I have to admit, I got a little confused with Beth and Rob's relationship, especially with them starting off looking like a couple and then at the party it being mentioned that them sleeping together was a big deal. It seemed more like they had been a couple and broken up for some reason than they'd been friends who had sex once.

And as has been mentioned, once they hit that military triage, there's no way that camera makes it out of there, and it's highly unlikely they'd let Rob and company leave, even with his "I have to go save a girl story." And if they had to go that route, at least have the officer say something like "I got someone out there too, but I can't go anywhere. Good luck."

But it's enjoyable, especially with the fleeting glimpses of the monster and the way you never know where he's going to show up. I did think the post-crash shot was going to be the end, and would have been okay with that (although part of me felt that Rob had earned a happy ending and didn't deserve to get nuked).

The military has bigger problems than Hud with a camcorder.

The crowd was PISSED with the ending.

Did the size of the monster seem to vary with some shots?

See, I thought they covered that very nicely. I was a little afraid at first that the script was just going to let the characters sneak away from the military. Having a soldier take pity on their situation and let them out was completely believable to me. Demanding that the soldier have a personal reason for his sympathy seems a little pedestrian to me. If it was me, I'd let them go. Do I need a justification?

I thought this too, but after seeing it a second time, it seems like in some of the shots the monster is standing on his hind legs, thus appearing to be the size of a skyscraper.

It's hard to tell, but I think in the scene where the monster shows up while they're saving Beth, it's walking on two legs, like a T-rex.

Both of those were necessary to move the story along.

Finally got to see Cloverfield this weekend: there were four of us (including two Manhattanites) and we all loved it. Happily, no one got sick. I was surprised, however, to see the movie play to a three-quarters empty theater (which, I guess, is reflected in its box office take).

I must confess to being confused by the animosity to the characters on display in this thread. It reminds me of the hatred shown to the main characters in the old Hostel thread. I just don't get it. They weren't awful people and, with one exception, didn't do anything awful. And I find it hard to believe that the Chewers, who seemingly pride themselves on being liberal and open-minded, would condemn the main characters for having money. Apparently, the upper-middle class, Christians and Republicans are not welcomed here in the Sewer. It's bizarre at best.

One complaint about the movie: in the final Central Park attack, we see tons of the parasites raining down off of Clovie (God, I hate that nickname) and yet no ramifications thereof. Beth and Rob hunker down in an underpass without fear of being attacked. Huh? The Spider-Dogs should have been all over that action. By the by, was anyone else reminded of Starship Trooper's bugs?

Phil Tippett's studio did the creature effects for both movies, so yep. Good eye.

EDIT: What happened to the "CLOVERFIELD: The Morning After" (sequel speculation) article on the main page?

Sounds like a bad after school television PSA.

Egads! Tiny starship trooper creatures attack!

The battle sequence with the tanks and rocket men rolling in reminded me of some of the assault scenes in Starship Troopers.


Oh and I was just thinking the film could have possibly worked better if there were no mites. But, there would have been more of that painful dialog between the characters, so on a level, I both dislike the mites and love them at the same time.

Especially the scenes in STARSHIP TROOPERS that you see through the news reporter's camera.

Good call.

I'm thinking back to the evacuation scenes. I'm wondering how long it would take to evacuate the island. I'm figuring at least a 6 hours to half a day if everyone left at exactly the same time and set out on foot and supplemented the trains.

About an hour in to the evacuation the creature destroys the bridge and cuts off part of the excape route. You still got about 5 hours left to evacuate everyone else, meanwhile the big daddy is wreaking havoc.

I would estimate 2 to 3 million casualties.

We're not hating on the characters because they're yuppies, or hipsters, or hippies. It's because they are boring cyphers, who bring nothing to the screen but distaste and boredom. And since we don't care about the characters, we don't give a crap what happens to them. So those parts that were supposed to be suspenseful and scary? Totally didn't have an effect. So now a few days after having seen Cloverfield, the only feelings I have towards it is the one I had towards its characters. Nothing but vague distaste.

I also saw a 'copter crash, or at least one that was crash-pending; were there more than just the two whirlybirds in the area at that point of the evacuation? It may not have been the one she was placed in if so. It seems silly to kill off a main character and not have the current survivors see it/comment on it ("Whoa, check out this view of the monster! Too bad what's-her-name is too dead to enjoy it!").

Yeah, but that was designed to be a comic book city. I recall it being referred to as an "ultimate version of New York" (or something) on one of the DVD features by someone involved in the production.

I don't see any reason why the other 'copter would have crashed. Hud and Friends were taken out by a well-placed swipe/chomp from the monster, not some ID4-style fireball.

Most of the people "hating on the characters" specifically cite Rob's apartment and/or toss of words like "yuppie" and "hipster" as justification. I can buy seeing them as neutral blank slates, but not blank slates with the hate-deck already stacked against them. That's the rub, fella.

I thought the other thing that 'crashed' was just some overturned jeep/car and not Lilly's copter. It happens way to quickly and without any major reaction from Rob and Hud to be her copter.

Plus... she's the loose thread for the sequel.

If you're talking about the flaming wreckage that went flying just as Hud and the Gang were taking off, yes that was a jeep.

Caught this tonight after seeing RAMBO. It was no RAMBO.

The thing that blows my mind, is that I had this fucking movie pegged the minute I saw the first teaser. I thought, "Oh, it's GODZILLA '98 meets BLAIR WITCH". And after all these months of speculation, THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT IT WAS. Nothing more.

That being said, it had its moments. Liked the monster bits, the characters of Hud and the girl he liked were good. Some pretty spooky bits. But I'm pretty amazed at how many people loved this thing considering that it was two dumb 90's films smashed together and repackaged with added yuppies.

After reading some of the complaints, I think I like the movie more, because they're largely so nitpicky and unimportant, if not just flat-out wrong. If you're griping about unrealistic battery life (which it wasn't), the main character's apartment size (which the first one wasn't), or whether the creature can be killed by conventional weapons (like you know?), I have to think you're just looking for reasons to not like the film. Of course there are some legitimate complaints to be made (the main couple needed a bit more development/personality to really drive home their ending), but there's a whole lot of backlash-scented comments as well.

As for a sequel, discussing it with friends, my favorite concept would be that of an embedded news reporter filming with an attached military unit. It would negate the need to explain why the characters are hanging around and filming the monster, allow the creators to step up the action and intensity to replace the reduced level of mystery, and would provide a fresh perspective while maintaining the feel that made Cloverfield special.

Plus they could reduce the shakiness and save janitorial costs at theaters worldwide.

The Rob's apartment thing and stuff like that comes about because that's all we got. The only thing that we can do to attach some depth to these characters is stuff that we are projecting ourselves, which in this case, is mostly negative. But I promise you, if there had been an hint of something approaching an interesting character trait or personality, or a shadow of something approaching dimension, then all this hipster talk would not have been voiced.

Edit- probably. I don't want to talk for anyone else in the thread.

I saw it for a second time this past Friday. It held up pretty well on a second viewing. Disregarding what I would consider peripheral problems/issues (geographic fidelity, battery staying power, etc.) as necessary for the type of movie it is, I liked it better the second time.

Specifically, I liked the characters more. For me, the turning point for liking Rob was in the electronics store. He has a moment after hearing Beth's message where he's quiet and still; to me, it seemed obvious he was weighing the likely cost of going to get her against how he'd feel about himself if he didn't. Made a big difference for me re: his "likeability."

Marlena I didn't like at all; she seemed liked a blank, weak hipster topped out on anti-depressants from the first frame she's in. Hud still bugged me, but less so; I could have done with a few less shouts of "Rob! Rob!" I do wish Hud had been written to be a bit more articulate and thoughtful, but oh well. The scenes where he tells everyone about Rob and Beth are pretty funny, if predictable.

My only problem with that POV is...

Should I let my personal prejudices fill in the gaps and form an opinion about a character for me? What if Rob were anything but a white, heterosexual male? What if he were a woman? Should I let a pang of misogynism prevent me from accepting the character... or xenophobia if he were an Arab, or homophobia if he were gay? What if Rob wore a cross around his neck?

You can be bothered with THE FILM for a lack of development, but hatred towards CHARACTERS for nothing more than a combo of race/gender/economic status (what we know about Rob) seems wrong to me. Besides a few comments about Hud's jokes or some of the dubious decisions made by Rob & Co., it seems like a bunch of people just want to dislike them because of the baggage they brought with them to the theater. I thought there were plenty of moments presented where you could feel for these people in the scary situation they were in. This isn't the same kind of exploitation film as a slasher flick, IMO, where rooting for the villain is a given.

When you hear about some tragic disaster on the news, do you wait for all the character-building testimonies from surviving friends and families before you decide if a victim is worthy of your sympathy? I know these are fictional characters, but considering the effectiveness of the presentation and execution, there's some cynical people out there. What if the characters were "smarter" and just left with the military from the start? Would that have been a more admirable trait? When the WTC fell, should I have felt bad about certain victims only? If there was a scene where Rob supported Beth's right to choose while he place a soda can in a recycling bin and explained how he was traveling to Japan to help distribute medication to impoverished blind Japanese children... would he have been given the benefit of the doubt?

EDIT: Can this post get anymore ridiculous?

Felicity + Godzilla + Blair Witch + Miracle Mile = Cloverfield

The Fonz approves, Darkmite.
The Fonz appreciates the absurd, Darkmite.

Yes. But I'm not stopping you.

Needs more Denzo the Family Iguana. Otherwise, great post.

I'm pretty sure criticism of Rob isn't based on his race or his gender. I'll admit (already admitted) to feeling some envy for the life he's leading, but doesn't everyone carry a bit of emotional baggage into a movie theater? We're not robots, we all have lives going on that are interrupted by a screening. A good film disables all that, and we can sit back and watch a story. Cloverfield doesn't really tell a story, it's just a travelogue, and a rather unbelievable one at that:


The problem with that is this unsettling feeling that I had during the film, where I felt that it just wasn't all that real. Sure, Abrams and co have gone to a good deal of trouble to try and make it look real, but the subject matter, and the occasional obvious moves by the filmmakers to keep the audience up to date, and the sheer 'gimmickiness' of the whole thing really kept me from taking any of it seriously. I think it also helped that it was difficult to see anything clearly.

You know, Cloverfield really comes across as an edited documentary of an actual disaster movie, coming out in the summer. Like someone's running around shooting little bits and pieces in close up but in the background the real film is being shot.

His race or gender might not have been called out specifically, but I'm sure they "color" certain people's POV in regards to his economic status. Would he have been hated if he were another gender & ethnicity (a double minority)? Would his fortunate financial situation be seen as so threatening in those cases, or would it be an admirable trait? Thank goodness his political or religious views weren't visible or the thread may have taken a real ugly turn.

Course everyone's got baggage, but that's no excuse for prejudice or labeling, is it?

Poor Rob's been through some heavy shit. Cut the guy some slack.

I do understand the point about immersion though. If someone's not "experiencing" a movie and is just looking at it from the Statler & Waldorf seats, then I suppose their personal feelings towards any of the film's elements (including sympathy for characters) will just be tainted by that inabilty to escape into the experience.

But don't hate Rob cause he has a little extra money. Maybe he earned it by investing in an overseas sneaker manufacturer that employees poor little overworked children. Teaching kids a work ethic, discipline, and the value of a dollar should be a respectable endeavor. Plus, if it means that our sneakers here in the U.S. of A. are even a little cheaper...



They’re turning kids into slaves just to make cheaper sneakers,
But what’s the real cost, ‘cause the sneakers don’t seem that much cheaper.
Why are we still paying so much for sneakers when you got little kid slaves making them?
What are your overheads?
Think about it, think about it, think, think about it...


EDIT: What IS wrong with the world today??? ;_;

That's kind of an odd projection you're having, there. I can't speak for everyone, but if it's still the same character, Rob, then I say I'd still feel the same general indifference (with a sprinkling of scorn), no matter what colour his skin is. It's not that I hate Rob, I'm just reacting to the general lack of character the filmmakers have endowed him with. 'Cut Rob some slack', you say? Why? What does he do in that film to justify any slack at all, besides getting everyone killed?

Quick, call the NAAHAHCMULE (the National Association for the Advancement of Hipsters and the Hair they so Carefully Muss Up to Look like it didn't require Effort). Have you met a real 'hipster'? People that truly achieve that label are usually self-obsessed assholes who care more about their own meaningless and vapid shit than what is going on around them. Hmm. I wonder who that sounds like. There's a reason why people hate those bastards. But really it's not about that. It's not even that Rob's actions got all them killed.

It's about the main characters boring the hell out of me. This is where the movie lost me.

EDIT: By the way, this is the oddest detour I've seen in many a thread.

Webspeak in the form of equations = annoying and overused.

But is there a flaw in my equation?

The animus in the thread was boring the hell out of me. I had to stir things up.

I liked it. A few good scary moments, but nothing that warrants repeat viewings or DVD rentals.

Is the talent pool of actors so small these days that the best they can muster is these people? They weren't neccessarily bad or anything, just... I wouldn't recognise the lead actor if I saw him on the street. He could've been an usher in the theatre as I was leaving and I wouldn't have known. The humans were just a big nothing.

And the love story: beyond atrocious. Why did they even bother?

I would've had them go back to rescue his cat or something. A) because the cat would be more instantly sympathetic and charismatric than the actress they got, and B) it would set up a good fight between the cat and those parasites.

I think that was deliberate. As awesome as Michael Biehn and Jeff Fahey would have been as Rob and Bro (with Gary Busey as Hud!), I have a feeling that it wouldn't have created the same suspension of disbelief that some of the audience members enjoyed.

Just chiming in to comment on the Marlena incident. A lot of people have mentioned her exploding but I thought the soldier shot her in the head because she was acting hysterical.

You and me against the world, DARKMITE8.