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Cloverfield Press screening - Tonight, Empire

great plot.
shit film.
made my eyes bleed.
i saw at least 5 other people with their eyes shut all the way through.
this film is a headache.
 
Just saw it. Can't see how it works as a parable of 911, apart from Manhattan being razed to the ground. There was no commentary on the monster or anything.

But as a straightforward disaster flick it worked very well.

Camera work thing did get annoying and the character holding it was equally irritating. Why did that stupid Lily woman feel the need to travel all the way through the mayhem to see if her dead boyfriend's brother's ex- girlfriend was OK? And what happened to the girl who got bit? Couldn't understand it.

However I never see scary films and got really caught up in this one.
I even did an audible whimper through nasty bit in the tunnel.
And hurt Mr VM's arm with my death grip.
 
vauxhallmum said:
Just saw it. Can't see how it works as a parable of 911, apart from Manhattan being razed to the ground. There was no commentary on the monster or anything.

But as a straightforward disaster flick it worked very well.

Camera work thing did get annoying and the character holding it was equally irritating. Why did that stupid Lily woman feel the need to travel all the way through the mayhem to see if her dead boyfriend's brother's ex- girlfriend was OK? And what happened to the girl who got bit? Couldn't understand it.

However I never see scary films and got really caught up in this one.
I even did an audible whimper through nasty bit in the tunnel.
And hurt Mr VM's arm with my death grip.
Click to expand...

9/11?
the concrete dust when the towers crashed down.
how information was based on television reports.
i thought it was like a modern version of a old 1950s martians movie - with newer enemies and social connotations...

Lily saw her dead boyfriend's brother as her real brother.

and the woman who got bit exploded.
she was infected remember? eyes bleeding. spontaneous explosion...
what i don't get is how come the others didn't iexplode.
they got bit in the tunnel also.

i fuckin' hated all the characters. glad it ended like that.
 
CharlieAddict said:
9/11?
the concrete dust when the towers crashed down.
how information was based on television reports.

Um, yes. Mr VM has just pointed that out. I WAS paying attention, I just was being a bit thick.
Also, with the girl who was bit, I meant did she just explode or was that some kind of John Hurt moment? I though maybe I had blinked and missed one of those nasty Spaceship Trooper type mini alien things burst out of her.
Mr VM says she exploded and I really need to calm down and forget this film now. :hmm:
Click to expand...
 
CharlieAddict said:
9/11?
and the woman who got bit exploded.
she was infected remember? eyes bleeding. spontaneous explosion...
what i don't get is how come the others didn't iexplode.
they got bit in the tunnel also.
Click to expand...

I don't think the others were bitten. Lily (the gorgeous black girl) was certainly attacked by the creatures but, unlike Marlena (sp?), didn't seem to have a scratch on her.
 
http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/movies/18clov.html

New York Times Review that I think sums it up nicely. Its so scathing its a joy to read.

For a brief, hopeful moment, I thought the filmmakers might be making a point about how the contemporary compulsion to record the world has dulled us to actual lived experience, including the suffering of others — you know, something about the simulacrum syndrome in the post-Godzilla age at the intersection of the camera eye with the narcissistic “I.” Certainly this straw-grasping seemed the most charitable way to explain characters whose lack of personality (“This is crazy, dude!”) is matched only by their incomprehensible stupidity. Smart as Tater Tots and just as differentiated, Rob and his ragtag crew behave like people who have never watched a monster movie or the genre-savvy “Scream” flicks or even an episode of “Lost” (Hello, Mr. Abrams!), much less experienced the real horrors of Sept. 11.
Click to expand...

The film uses loads of 911 imagery to further its wow factor, but really is horribley crass with it. Surely if it was as 'really real' as it thinks it should be one of the obnoxious twats at the loft party would have said 'oh my god its just like 9/11'. And also where was the coke? How come when a dirty great monster attacks no one said 'fuck'. The point being the people at the party were such awful saccharine facsimiles of someone idea of 'trendy cool people' that it was impossible to warm to the characters and impossible to suspend disbelief. Which meant I spent the whole film wishing death upon them, and when it came feeling very shortchanged.

The only film I've seen where the whole audience had a collective dissatisfied hmpf-ing 'what?' at the end. Basically Cloverfield is the shittest film I've seen in the cinema for a very long time. If it wasn't for the handy cam bollocks it would only amount to about 15 minutes worth of material. If you want handy cam go and wathc Lars Von Triers or 28 Days Later.

My irritation was compounded by the fact I had been relaibley informed a giant space monkey turns up and beats the fuck out of the Cloverfield monster. It doesnt.:(
 
I read in the paper today that there has been hype about this film, including website thingies. Well, I missed all of it. I was first aware of its existence today.

No intention of seeing, mind. It looks pants.
 
Glad to see that NYT review - I started watching it the other day and the characters were such personality-free thick shits that I just couldn't bear it.
 
Well I liked it.

OK so the shaky camera was off-putting and as you follow a bunch of wannabees around you don't get all the answers that are going through your head as to what the hell is going on, but if you were with them that is exactly what it would be like which is what the format of the film set out to do, so I was prepared for that.

OK, so normal people wouldn't go following rockets and troops towards a building crushing monster, but there'd be no film if they just ran away would there.

Much in the way that Jaws was so successful, the lack of clear shots of the monster added to its ferocity as far as I was concerned, as did the whole issue not really knowing what was going on.

Effects were superb, better than Godzilla. Any monster movie set in a regular city is going to have plot line issues so I thought it was ok to duck this and just follow a bunch of people through a nightmare.
 
Thing is, you can choose to look at it as a 9/11 parable, or you can simply watch it as a different style moster movie and probably get far more out of it...
 
If it didn't make me seasick...
I was thinking about running it through After Effects to reduce camera shake :) I reckon they shot it all without shake - added in all the effects and then shook it all about again. Gonna try and finish it tonight.
 
kyser_soze said:
Thing is, you can choose to look at it as a 9/11 parable, or you can simply watch it as a different style moster movie and probably get far more out of it...
Click to expand...

Thats true, and like the characters you'd have to blank 9/11 from your mind. I saw it with a New Yorker who's opinion was 'if it wasn't so stupid I'd be insulted'. I saw it as somthing that visually referenced 9/11.
 
TBH if they had made more of 9/11 it wouldn't have been a decent piece of actual entertainment, rather than some huge 'message' film - personally I think that saying it references 9/11 footage by having smoke and debris come down a street and has buildings collapsing is needless - are we now to assume that anyone who shoots a disaster flick in NY will be visually referencing 9/11 from hereon in? No, of course not.
 
I'm actually more interested in seeing the film because of this thread, the mixed responses have piqued my curiosity...
 
CharlieAddict said:
great plot.
shit film.
made my eyes bleed.
i saw at least 5 other people with their eyes shut all the way through.
this film is a headache.
Click to expand...
LOL we went to see this yesterday and my girlfriend was sick afterwards! We were sat right near the front and the camera is a bit all over the place!

I liked the film. I'm always interested in original concepts and thought this was good. If it had just been shot in "normal" vision, and if we'd had all the information about what was going on, it would've just been another boring monster film. But the way it was shot was great and worked really well
 
christonabike said:
Near enough a Godzilla flick then

:)
Click to expand...

Well......yes and no really, which is why it works. If it was pure monster movie we wouldn't be talking about it coz its been done a thousand times before. The format made it something different and the beastie certainly was something different.

Ultimately it is a monster, disaster movie but your not seeing back watching it all knowing whats going on.
 
kyser_soze said:
Well, it's a marmite film, mainly owing to the single handheld camera approach to filming it, but a top monster flick I reckon.

Put it this way - I came out of the cinema, stood still and realised I was adrenalised - was really, really buzzing.

Really enjoyed it, but if your eyes don't work too well with near constant camera movement (and lots of very jerky camera movement in places) don't see it cos you'll hate it. If you can survive that (I found tilting my head to the left slighyly helped), you'll watch a good film with some genuinely excellent cinema 'moments' where you'll go 'Whoa' and 'Arrggh!'
Click to expand...
I came out feeling really nauseous, the shaky camera and loudness of it quite literally made me feel sick. I wasn't sure whether I was going to throw up -- and not because of the gore, because I don't mind, but it gave me a shocking headache and made me feel dizzy and sick.
 
CyberRose said:
LOL we went to see this yesterday and my girlfriend was sick afterwards! We were sat right near the front and the camera is a bit all over the place!
Click to expand...
Glad it's not just me being a wimp. No film has ever had that effect on me before. And that's not a good thing. I thought I had food poisoning from the sandwich shop, or thought that maybe the cup of tea I had a the cinema, maybe there was something wrong with their water supply...

But if other people have felt sick or even been sick, that's not a good sign.
 
AnnO'Neemus said:
Glad it's not just me being a wimp. No film has ever had that effect on me before. And that's not a good thing. I thought I had food poisoning from the sandwich shop, or thought that maybe the cup of tea I had a the cinema, maybe there was something wrong with their water supply...

But if other people have felt sick or even been sick, that's not a good sign.
Click to expand...
Well, she had also had a bit to drink the night before! ;)
 
Wrysmile said she felt ill and had to look away at several points...I just toughed it out and tilted my head a few times which seemed to do the trick!
 
AnnO'Neemus said:
Glad it's not just me being a wimp. No film has ever had that effect on me before. And that's not a good thing. I thought I had food poisoning from the sandwich shop, or thought that maybe the cup of tea I had a the cinema, maybe there was something wrong with their water supply...

But if other people have felt sick or even been sick, that's not a good sign.
Click to expand...

at the ticket office, did you guys see the sign saying that the camera flashes is "similar to that of a rollercoaster ride?"

i did. ignored it as usual.
i sat close to the screen.
i normally like sitting close - i enjoy moving pictures, the clarity, the lights - but fuck me, this film is ugly up close.

it was like watching a firework display recorded by a hyper-active 11 year old kid with a wanking disorder and the shits.

too shakey.

what made my experience of Cloverrfield worse, was that the people on either side of me were one one gulp away from throwing up.
the sound of their heaving. their spitting. gee...not a good omen is it?

i've never been in an auditorium where so many people wanted to die cos of a film's cinematography (or lack of).
 
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