Cloverfield

[schild]

Phildo wants lore.

lol.

He did read that shitty backstory book on LOTR though.

Dork.

[NiX]

What are some of the hidden things in the movie? I know I'm going to be seeing this movie again, so it wouldn't hurt to try and see it for myself. I saw the Coney Island footage splash. It wasn't hard to figure out that something was about to be shown. Top right of the screen near the ferry if you didn't catch it.

[sidereal]

For one scene when they're in the penthouse you can see the ghost of a kid hiding behind the drapes.

[Phildo]

Backstory of Characters > Monster Attack > Find Out Origin of Monster > Rescue Girl > Kill Monster > HAPPY ENDING WITH WEDDING

Seriously people like you are responsible for movies like Meet the Spartans or 27 Dresses, something amazing comes along that doesn't fit the old formula, and you reject it because everything isn't laid out on a silver platter.

Okay,  that's more like it.  But really, what I WANTED was for them to either make a movie about people during a monster attack with COMPELLING CHARACTERS, or to go the other route and just do a goddamn monster destruction frenzy.  And don't you blame me for Meet the Spartans!  I haven't paid for one of those dumbass parody flicks since Scary Movie 1.

As to Schildo's comments, I just left the theatre feeling angry and unfulfilled.  Sure, we got to see a tiny bit of cataclysmic destruction, but most of the movie was Rob chasing after forgettable-brunette, while Hud makes moronic comments that would probably get him thrown OUT of the fraternity if they ever found out.

And yes, I like lore.  You can keep your movies without backstory and character motivation to yourself, buddy.


Edit: And the zerglings?  Why?

[Rendakor]

Hey, not all parody movies were awful. Not Another Teen Movie was legitimately funny.

[Ookii]

Phil does not like movies, it has been established.

[stray]

All parody movies are funny! Be it Mel Brooks, Leslie Neilsen, the Wayans, or teen shit.

[Phildo]

Nope, I don't like movies.  Absolutely hate 'em.

[WayAbvPar]

All parody movies are funny! Be it Mel Brooks, Leslie Neilsen, the Wayans, or teen shit.

Please tell me that was supposed to be green. There isn't a Wayans who has done anything even remotely amusing in 15 years.

[Phildo]

Woah, woah, woah!

[Jain Zar]

^^^  That movie kinda sucked dude. 

If you had said "The Last Boy Scout", you may have gotten a pass since its one of 2 bearable Wayans movies.  (The other being Im Gonna Get You Sucka.)

Remember I said bearable, not good.

As to the whole I NEED LORE.

No.  No you don't.  That's what made Cloverfield so awesome.  Shit isn't explained.  It just IS.  Monster arrives.  Why?  Where?  How? 

Nobody knows. 

THATS THE FUCKING POINT.

That is what made it so effective.

Did you need to know what planet the Alien came from in Alien?  Howabout all the info on the derelict ship?

NO YOU DID NOT.

Same thing, only better given the whole first person perspective and all.

Hell, we have no idea if Hammerdown worked, and there is a 90% chance our last 2 survivors in Manhattan died, and about a 75% chance everyone we saw in the movie died.

You leave unnerved, unsettled, depressed, and disturbed.

AND THAT FUCKING ROCKS.

[stray]

I'm Gonna Get You Sucka is far from merely bearable.

Don't Be a Menace is almost as funny too btw...


As for Scary Movie, yes, I think it's funny. I don't think it's great or anything, but I do think it's funny. I'm sure that makes me strange or something around here. That's fine. You guys are strange to me too.

[HaemishM]

^^^  That movie kinda sucked dude. 

If you had said "The Last Boy Scout", you may have gotten a pass since its one of 2 bearable Wayans movies.  (The other being Im Gonna Get You Sucka.)

You forgot Low Down Dirty Shame. Awesome fun movie.

[Phildo]

Same thing, only better given the whole first person perspective and all.

Hell, we have no idea if Hammerdown worked, and there is a 90% chance our last 2 survivors in Manhattan died, and about a 75% chance everyone we saw in the movie died.

You leave unnerved, unsettled, depressed, and disturbed.

AND THAT FUCKING ROCKS.

I agree with how your assessment of the ending, it was pretty fucking cool.  And as far as the monster stuff went, yeah, that was cool too.  The problem is that after seeing it I hear about people saying that there was all kinds of shit hidden in the movie, and I'm not cool with that.  Don't allude to there being a back story hidden on the internet or in a single frame of film, either tell us or don't tell us.

Furthermore, I would have absolutely loved this film if it weren't told from the perspective of these particular survivors.  The only one I actually liked got exploded, probably by alien spores or something like that.  Meanwhile, I'm left laughing at and being completely removed from the situation because of the dialog.  It did nothing to enhance the movie and everything to destroy it for me.

So, in summation: Awesome monster film, absolutely ruined for me by the fact that 90% of the time the moronic characters couldn't keep their mouths shut, and the producers feeling the need to be mysterious about the whys and hows of said awesome monster.  Also, the zerglings were silly.

[Selby]

As for Scary Movie, yes, I think it's funny. I don't think it's great or anything, but I do think it's funny. I'm sure that makes me strange or something around here. That's fine. You guys are strange to me too.

I liked Scary Movie.  Scary Movie 2 was even funnier.  Scary Movie 3... did not enjoy.  I think the Wayans can be funny, but it has to be the right element and right scenario.

[dusematic]

Good flick.  The camw as a little too shaky though.  It gave me eye strain.  Felt like I had spent 6 hours reading by candlelight.

[Margalis]

There is something kind of lame about having to pick out little bits in a couple of frames, read director interviews and visit websites to learn the story. I'm fine if they don't want to have a real backstory but in that case just don't have it. I don't want a fucking "multimedia experience" where I have to mail off my cereal box UPCs for a special decoder ring.

People's enjoyment of the movie seems to hing on what they think of the characters. Seems fair to me to say that lame characters = lame movie.

[Abagadro]

Then don't search for the stuff. It's just another level for those who want to hunt it out.

[Johny Cee]

I don't understand the complaints about the characters.  For B monster movie territory,  they were great.  

Even great monster movies tend to have one real character,  maybe a couple partial characters,  and a bunch of cardboard cut-outs or straight archetypes.  Alien franchise?  Fuck,  I love the Thing but hell if I can tell who's who sometimes in that movie besides McCreedy, Childs, and Quaker Oats guy (who was more of a cameo).  There were like 3 or 4 "random bearded guys" I always have no clue about.


Film explainations of monsters are overrated, anyway.  It's always either:  A. Came from outer space! or B. Science gone mad.
(Which option is chosen is usually dependent on if we are more afraid of foreigners or technology as a society at that point.)

[dusematic]

I thought the characters were pretty funny.  The worst was Malrena, she was way too stereoptypically emo.

[schild]

I thought the characters were pretty funny.  The worst was Malrena, she was way too stereoptypically emo.

It's readily apparent that Marlena was supposed to be played by Zooey Deschanel.

[Phildo]

I don't understand the complaints about the characters.  For B monster movie territory,  they were great. 

If this were just another B movie then, yes, they would be passable.  The problem is that the movie forces us to focus on their characters to a much greater extent than your average Godzilla knockoff does.

And as far as Marlena goes, I noticed the Zooey Deschanel thing too.  That's probably why I liked her.

[dusematic]

I thought the characters were pretty funny.  The worst was Malrena, she was way too stereoptypically emo.

It's readily apparent that Marlena was supposed to be played by Zooey Deschanel.

Nice obs

[Jain Zar]

I thought the characters were pretty funny.  The worst was Malrena, she was way too stereoptypically emo.

It's readily apparent that Marlena was supposed to be played by Zooey Deschanel.

Then I woulda been even sadder when she died.  But I actually liked everyone for some reason. 
Which shouldn't have happened since I hate rich 20 something yuppies. 

As to the backstory?  It doesn't really explain all that much anyhow.  Its better if folks don't go digging the net for it.
And it merely amounts to: Bad Corporation's secret drink ingredient is found on bottom of the sea.  Digging platforms wake up monster.

Doesn't add much IMHO.

As to the Zerglings?  Lots of monster movies use littler critters.  Rodan had them.  Most versions of King Kong had them.  The 98 Godzilla had them.  The aborted 90s Godzilla movie had them as a design.  Godzilla vs Destoroyah had them.  One of the Mothra trilogy had them.  Gamera vs Legion had them.

Its a common part of the genre.  (I'm sure there are more I am forgetting.)

Oh yeah.  Someone needs to give me 100 bucks so I can buy the Hasbro toy they are currently hawking on sight unseen preorder.  14" tall.  Electronic effects.  2 heads.  A couple of the critters.  SEVENTY POINTS OF ARTICULATION.

Clover can help Godzilla beat up Fortress Maximus! 

[schild]

Slusho is featured in episode 1x02 of Alias.

The more you know, and such.

[Velorath]

I don't understand the complaints about the characters.  For B monster movie territory,  they were great.  

No, they really weren't.  If we're going to be tethered to a group of characters for the entire duration of a movie, and if by observing these characters we're supposed to be seeing what it would be like for "real people" to be in this kind of situation, then these characters are epic fucking fail.  Like I said pages back, stuff like Night of the Living Dead shows that you can be doing a Horror movie with characters that seem realistic as opposed to looking like you pulled them all off of the set of the teen drama T.V. series being flimed a few lots over at the studio.

If you want to set the bar lower because it's a "B monster movie" go right ahead, but to me it's wasted potential.  This movie could have been more than just 30 mintues of awesome mixed in with an hour of suck.  It feels like it wanted to be more, but couldn't because four years of working on Felicity together convinced Abrams and Reeves that this is a realistic view of young people today.

[stu]

After Marlena was bitten, I kept thinking Man, shouldn't they sanitize that wound? Who knows what kind of germs those things have. Then she exploded. 

[sidereal]

Saw yesterday afternoon in an empty theater and was pleasantly surprised.  My new rule for movie enjoyment is to go in with the lowest expectations possible.  Just assume that every movie will be the worst movie you've ever seen and a total waste of money, and you will be happy*.

* Offer not valid for AvP2, which really is the worst movie you've ever seen and a total waste of money.

[WayAbvPar]

Saw yesterday afternoon in an empty theater and was pleasantly surprised.  My new rule for movie enjoyment is to go in with the lowest expectations possible.  Just assume that every movie will be the worst movie you've ever seen and a total waste of money, and you will be happy*.

* Offer not valid for AvP2, which really is the worst movie you've ever seen and a total waste of money.

I pretty much have that attitude, which is why I only see 3 or 4 movies a year in the theatre any more. Unless it is something I feel I just can't miss, I wait until DVD/On Demand/HBO.

[dusematic]

As to the whole I NEED LORE.

No.  No you don't.  That's what made Cloverfield so awesome.  Shit isn't explained.  It just IS.  Monster arrives.  Why?  Where?  How? 

Nobody knows. 

THATS THE FUCKING POINT.

That is what made it so effective.

FUCK YEAH!


I agree.

[stray]

I haven't seen it, but I'd agree anyways. The best type of scripts to me are when scenes segue from one to the next with just action (action in the literal sense of the word..not talking about genre).

[Ookii]

Alas, all the lore will be explained in Cloverfield 2, oh well.

[WindupAtheist]

They're just lucky they kept the budget down and made everything they needed in the first weekend, because it dropped almost 70% in the second.  Word of mouth shot this movie dead.

[Jain Zar]

People have no taste in other words.
 

[Velorath]

They're just lucky they kept the budget down and made everything they needed in the first weekend, because it dropped almost 70% in the second.  Word of mouth shot this movie dead.

I don't think it was just word of mouth (since reviews and such have been pretty mixed as opposed to overwhelmingly negative), although word of mouth about the sheer amount of people that get motion sickness watching the thing might have hurt.  The thing is, the whole marketing campaign was based on not giving out a lot of information, and building up all this mystery as to what this movie was even about, so everyone who actually gave a shit went to the theater the first weekend before everything got spoiled for them.  That's part of the problem I think with the already being worked on sequel, because that marketing campaign can't work a second time.