Post by A.G. on Jan 21, 2008 13:09:59 GMT -5
Saw we saw Cloverfield on Saturday. In the end, it’s another giant monster movie, so it’s not really a life-changer. The main thing to discuss is the First-Person perspective the movie takes on the situation. It’s... well, let me break it down for you guys:
SPOILERS included!!!
The Good:
The First-Person point of view of the movie is very original and adds a lot of suspense that you probably would not get in the traditional 3rd person version of the same scenario. So that works well. I also enables you to relate to the characters much more. While I did not care for the monster (more on that later) the small ticks falling off it was a nice touch and a great concept that added a new lever of danger. The girl exploding from the bite was one of my favorite scenes... it was just so unique... I liked it.
The Bad:
Because everything is in First-Person, you don’t get ANY backstory. Where did the monster come from? What is it? Is there more of them? We also don’t know what happened to it after the final explosion. Which leads me to the next point of having the whole cast die... To me, that’s a BIG NO! You can’t just kill off everyone that moves you through the story! That’s very anti-climactic. Then you got the “subtle” stuff. The post-credits static, “it’s still alive” and the brief ending scene splash that supposedely shows the monster’s arrival... that’s all fine, but too subtle to really notice. If this was a true epic, such things would be worth-while nitpicking. But since the whole thing is kind of a “fantasy documentary” I found myself not really interested in such trivialities. I also felt that the monster was crap. The fake production art that showed a mutated walking Blue Whale looked SO much more dramatic and epic as opposed to the clusterf...ck giant zombie we actually got. The whole thing just looked stupid!
Overall:
Watch it at least once. It’s worth your time. You really get a feeling of watching a documentary or “it really happened” news report. But unfortunetely there are a lot of downsides with the monster (sadly) being one of them. They should’ve done a better job on that. Had they made the monster “cool” then all the subtle stuff would’ve counted as a pro vs being a con.
What I don’t get:
1. What caused the initial black-out? The whole place shook and they briefly lost power. Then they watched the news report of a tanker accident near the Statue of Liberty. How would that cause a tremor of that magnitude? The ONLY way would be for the monster to throw the tanker into the middle of the city... but it was still in the water... so what the hell?
2. After they got attacked by the ticks in the tunnels, one of them used a crowbar to open the vending machine. When they carefully started to leave the area they were STILL unarmed!!! WTF!!! Where the crowbar?! I mean, if I knew those things were out there, I would arm myself with ANYTHING, even a freaking broom! They had pleanty of objects in that room that could’ve served as weapons.
3. Why did the monster eat Hud (camera guy)? I mean, it’s so freaking big, why would it even notice him? That’s just stupid. The thing is the size of a building, but still take time to look at this insect of a person and eat him with the military blasting it from all sides. Makes no sense at all.
SPOILERS included!!!
The Good:
The First-Person point of view of the movie is very original and adds a lot of suspense that you probably would not get in the traditional 3rd person version of the same scenario. So that works well. I also enables you to relate to the characters much more. While I did not care for the monster (more on that later) the small ticks falling off it was a nice touch and a great concept that added a new lever of danger. The girl exploding from the bite was one of my favorite scenes... it was just so unique... I liked it.
The Bad:
Because everything is in First-Person, you don’t get ANY backstory. Where did the monster come from? What is it? Is there more of them? We also don’t know what happened to it after the final explosion. Which leads me to the next point of having the whole cast die... To me, that’s a BIG NO! You can’t just kill off everyone that moves you through the story! That’s very anti-climactic. Then you got the “subtle” stuff. The post-credits static, “it’s still alive” and the brief ending scene splash that supposedely shows the monster’s arrival... that’s all fine, but too subtle to really notice. If this was a true epic, such things would be worth-while nitpicking. But since the whole thing is kind of a “fantasy documentary” I found myself not really interested in such trivialities. I also felt that the monster was crap. The fake production art that showed a mutated walking Blue Whale looked SO much more dramatic and epic as opposed to the clusterf...ck giant zombie we actually got. The whole thing just looked stupid!
Overall:
Watch it at least once. It’s worth your time. You really get a feeling of watching a documentary or “it really happened” news report. But unfortunetely there are a lot of downsides with the monster (sadly) being one of them. They should’ve done a better job on that. Had they made the monster “cool” then all the subtle stuff would’ve counted as a pro vs being a con.
What I don’t get:
1. What caused the initial black-out? The whole place shook and they briefly lost power. Then they watched the news report of a tanker accident near the Statue of Liberty. How would that cause a tremor of that magnitude? The ONLY way would be for the monster to throw the tanker into the middle of the city... but it was still in the water... so what the hell?
2. After they got attacked by the ticks in the tunnels, one of them used a crowbar to open the vending machine. When they carefully started to leave the area they were STILL unarmed!!! WTF!!! Where the crowbar?! I mean, if I knew those things were out there, I would arm myself with ANYTHING, even a freaking broom! They had pleanty of objects in that room that could’ve served as weapons.
3. Why did the monster eat Hud (camera guy)? I mean, it’s so freaking big, why would it even notice him? That’s just stupid. The thing is the size of a building, but still take time to look at this insect of a person and eat him with the military blasting it from all sides. Makes no sense at all.
