I just came back from watching the new movie everyone's talking about: Cloverfield. Unimpressed. I found the concept of a original monster attacking New York City from the viewpoint of individuals appealing. However, I found the movie to contain way to many flaws. For one-The camera. It was very innovative, but it limited the movie's potential way too much. Some scenes could have been better done with camera angles outside of a camcorder. Granted, some were very clever, but the first-person view of Hud the entire time felt too limited. My next complaint was the fact that nothing was explained. Nothing, between the first half-hour and the end, practically nothing was figured out. Monster movies, I believe, should have a mysteriousness to them, but over time explains itself. Another reason why I didn't like it (Spoilers) was that everyone died. Between the exploding torso (which was completely unnecessary and didn't do anything to the movie but create shock value) and the abrupt ending, I felt unsatisfied and unjust on how they died. Take Marlene. Just when her character begins to develop, and I begin to feel pity- she dies. That and Jason, who had great potential as a character, died immediately. The monster wasn't taken from any stories, but seemed to be very bland and unoriginal. It spawned little creatures that attacked people. These creatures were awesome looking. I really did like the look of them- but the large one seemed to be very un-unique. The plot was very good however. Attempting to rescue someone close, even though done before, is a plot worth watching. For that reason, I didn't like the end. It feels unaccomplished. J.J. Abrams took a chance with this movie. While not perfect, I think it gives him warrant enough to be a blockbuster. I don't really know why he advertised him name so much though. Peter Nolan needs to be advertising his name all over his movies. So, Summary.
Was it good? yes. Was it bad? no, not really. Was it worth watching? No, not at the price movies are these days. Movies have been getting more and more disappointing. I haven't watch one that didn't leave a sense of 'eh' in a long time.
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2 comments:
I don't really get how you could ask for something to be mysterious and complain about nothing being explained (see: definition of mysterious). Godzilla, classic giant monster movie, does not explain anything.
Also, you can't really get the viewpoint of individuals and then get camera angles outside of the actually people themselves, that's totally counter-productive. The point of the movie is they found the tape.
There wasn't real character development in the movie, they were just people, that's how they were portrayed, that's how they were meant to be portrayed, there was nothing overly heroic about any of them besides the main character and since the movie was basically ABOUT him that'd certainly make sense.
If anything, the most unique creature was the big creature, can you describe it well? Probably not. The little creatures? Starship Troopers, Zerg, Super Metroid, WoW, everything rips off monsters EXACTLY like that. The big creature was unlike anything I've ever seen, god forbid he didn't have a bagillion spikes and could shoot giant fireballs out of his eyes. He had like fucking lungs on his head or something!!!
Every character has to die, it's implied in the movie's beginning very blatantly, it shouldn't have been a surprise. It was a tape recovered by the government...if they were alive, there wouldn't have been a movie since they wouldn't need the tape persay, and odds are, it would have been in the media rather than in the hands of the government.
On a level of uniqueness and mysteriousness this movie superseded most movies I've seen recently since A: Like I said, the monster is unable to be described accurately since there's nothing to relate it to, B: They didn't tell you anything about the movie, you go in knowing 1 thing, some bad shit happens to NYC, C: If the monster is undescribable (unique) and the plot is unable to be identified (mysterious) then the movie according to your logic would actually be quite good.
Not to mention, the acting was phenomenal, the camera was great for the setting and plot, there was nothing overly wrong with the movie.
Godzilla was destroying Japan out of revenge for environmental waste and such. (The new one was from nuclear explosion. It didn't explain why it was in NY specifically, but it had a nest. That movies was bad anyway.) I loved the mysteriousness of the movie during the movie, but the whole point of a mystery is for it to be revealed. Not so much in Cloverfield.
I realize the movie is based on the tape being found, then played. But out of pure entertainment-veiwpoint, different angles would have been better used. Unless of course, Cloverfield 2 is. then Cloverfield 1 is just a ingenious prologue and 'teaser'.
There is definitely character development in that movie. The change between Hud and Marlene, Beth and Rob, etc. Lily was the most static one, but they also spent a great deal of time in the beginning for character personalities, etc. No doubt the movie is about Rob, but having the other characters die so abrupt feels odd. I know the cliche is to have the people slowly dieing, but having some sort of Acknowledgement of their death would leave their deaths to be less brutal. Even so, the exploding stomach was put in there for shock value. There wasn't any back-story for it, it just happened.
Yeah, I know the little guys are highly unoriginal- but I never really said they were. If I did, I was wrong. I just think they looked really cool. The big guy was less impressive for me. I didn't like the way he looked at all. Sure, the structure of him was pretty cool. Other than that, he looked like monster sketches. Gray, Teeth, tough skin. I'm waiting for a monster movie with something really terrifying. something like this. http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/toybox_112806_1.jpg
This was taken off a Cthulu google search, but either way, I haven't seen many things like that in movies.
The Character deaths were expected, but- again, brutal. I rather keep sudden deaths such as those to extras. That's just a personal feeling, but I can understand how people would want it more towards "realism" (even though its a monster movie, I have an entire theory written about reality in fantasy settings).
Lemme just say for the original post, add "cool and original" to anywhere I say its unoriginal. Mainly, its unoriginal to my mind, but to the general masses, it probally is. I did like the mysteriousness of the movie, but for it not explaining anything, it was a huge disappointment. I like to walk away asking little questions, not every. I guess according to my logic the movie would be good, but it doesn't settle too well for me. Too many things I think could have been improved.
"Not to mention, the acting was phenomenal"
-agreed
"the camera was great for the setting and plot"
-eh, could have been done better. great if the next one isn't.
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