…#5: Fire
Cloverfield Review
Just got back from seeing this new giant monster movie. It was not bad, but it was sure as hell not great. The first 10-15 minutes, which are used to establish various relationships between a bunch of 20 something New York urbanites, could easily have been cut to maybe 5 minutes. And speaking of those same 20 somethings, you never really find yourself giving a rat’s ass whether they live or die. I mean, the fuckers were too dumb to even grab a hunk of pipe to carry as a weapon.
The “story told from a video camera that was found by the government” style was interesting enough, tho it is not terribly original. The whole shakey cam effect was, while realistic, rather annoying. I can see why some folks would get motion sickness. Personally, my youthful propensity to get motion sick was burned out of me when I was stationed on a US Navy destroyer that chased a Russian sub into the stormy seas of the Gulf of Alaska.
The Monster was quite cool, as were it’s parasites. Naturally, you have to suspend several layers of disbelief (giant monsters are always WAY to damage resistant and those that rise up from the ocean depths never seem to suffer from explosive decompression), but if you are a giant monster fan, this is easy. Watching the Big Apple get trashed was also cool, but next time, let’s have a monster trash Miami or Chicago or Seattle or some other big city, ok?
Anyway, it was a pretty decent flick. I might watch it again when it hits DVD, since I’ll be able to fast forward past the pinheaded 20 somethings.
Bonus Micro Review
Jaded old fart that I am, the teaser trailer for Star Trek still made me break out in goosebumps. I can hardly wait for Xmas.
The Dociverse Blog 
I found myself caring for these folks, especially near the end. Especially the cameraman. Everyone else was too shellshocked, but even then you’d think one of them would have had the forethought to get a weapon. At least they didn’t follow the cliches of panicking and getting killed by the monsters. As for motion sickness, I actually had some, but it didn’t last thankfully.
Finally, I admit I loved seeing that trailer for ST as well. :D
I couldn’t care for them because it seemed obvious to me what their fates were. I was actually hoping they would die in the chopper crash because that would have spared us the last tearful minutes of the reunited lovers that you just knew had to be coming. Then I hoped they had all died when Hud did because that would have been a great ending. But know, we got the last bits of tenderness amid terror and then the remaining bit of the “good day” that was left on the tape. Sigh.
The remaining bit is what made it for me. I suspected from the beginning what would happen to them.
My favorite trailer before the show was for Hellboy 2, though Ironman and Star Trek also tweaked my inner geek.
The movie itself? Godzilla meets Blair Witch Project. I kept hoping the kids would get killed so we could get another viewpoint of the incident. I think the intro was so long because you were supposed to either a) be fooled into thinking this was some other kind of movie (in which case the whole hyping of the film was counter-productive) or b) somehow come to care what happens to these dweebs when the shit goes down. There were some funny “laughing at the idiots” moments and some genuinely good action-film bits. Overall, I think the technique of filming was taken too far.
I didn’t get to see the Hellboy 2 trailer, probably because they wasted time showing trailers for some dumbass hip hop dance flick and some teenage Ferris Bueller ripoff.
Yeah, I was hoping the movie would be told from multiple points of view, too. Maybe from news reports, military footage, a couple of other sources. I think the director really dropped the ball there.
I read on one guys blog that he tought Cloverfield was a “classic”. Me, I think the only thing that will keep it in the top 10 next week is if nothing else prmieres at all.