Some of the best genre fiction comes out of a desire to look at well-worn staples from a new perspective. Marvels (from Marvel Comics) looked at the birth of some of their greatest heroes through the ground-level eyes of a photographer. The Sixth Sense tells a very simple ghost story, with the added wrinkle of one of the protagonists being a ghost himself (and don’t give me that spoiler alert nonsense…if you haven’t seen it by now, you were never going to see it).
And at first blush, Cloverfield seems to take the idea of a giant monster attacking Manhattan and look at it through the viewfinder of a video camera held by survivors. Right from the creepy opening text (it talks about the incident site "formerly known as ‘Central Park’"), this looks like snatches of footage pieced together after the big scaly Armageddon.
Click here for the watchy-watchy.
And less is thrillingly more in this spot. If nothing else, Cloverfield (and Lost and Alias) producer J.J. Abrams knows how to whet an appetite. Come January, we’ll see if he knows how to satisfy it as well. What think you, PopWatchers?
Been excited about this since the first trailer…..however, after hearing the sound of the monster, I cant get the feeling that it is going to be Godzilla
Been excited about this since the first trailer…..however, after hearing the sound of the monster, I cant shake the feeling that it is going to be Godzilla
Yesssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!
But, as in certain portions of War of the Worlds and The Blair Witch Project, would you really be concerned with getting a good shot on your camcorder while running for your life?
Now if Ultra-Man where to make an appearance to save the day, I would be so elated.
Hmm…I realize this is not supposed to be some sort of Academy Award piece, but the acting seemed a bit…stiff.
Frankly, I think what happened is JJ realized how much the monster on LOST has captivated the viewers, and he just went from there. That is what the beast sounds like…though I understand the homage to Godzilla, too.
Still intrigued though…
Having motion-sickness flashbacks of Blair Witch… need to go yack in a trash barrel now.
I just hope that the move justifies all of the hype. Snakes on a Plane anyone?
Watch closely to the shadow of the woman behind the curtain with the soldiers, it looks like she blows-up. There might be more going on here than a straight Godzilla rip-off.
The woman with the curtain: there is this weird ‘sucking?’ noise…and the shadows look like a mix between the Sand people and jawa from Star Wars.
That man is a genius.
Abrams is a tease. If he thought he had a movie premise that would make us want to see the movie, he would show it to us. Maybe he’s skipping the stage in making a movie where you first come up with an idea for a movie, but even that has been tried before.
I want to see this, NOW. With the continuing writer’s strike, Lost probably isn’t coming back anytime soon, but this will be a nice distraction until them.
JJ’s problem is not with creating fantastic worlds but with maintaing their continuity and providing a satisfying payoff. Just look at ALIAS and, to a lesser degree, LOST. Both shows were rich in mythology and superb characterizations, only to have those qualities steadiliy degraded as their runs continued. Hopefully, considering a movie is a much shorter medium, he will be able to realize his story fully and maintain its integrity throughout.
I don’t care what it is, if more than 5 minutes of the movie is that unbelievably shaky handheld stuff, I’m not watching it. I start to get a headache from watching the trailers, let alone a 2-hour movie!
Let me add my comment to those of BrandonK and Megan: I am SICK of all the shaking camera stuff that is so prevalent today (and is obviously a big part of Mr. Abrams latest effort). I won’t be watching Cloverfield (or, for that matter, any other movies by Paul Greengrass). I wish this trend would just up and die quickly!
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