movies

[oakenguy]

So, finally saw 'Cloverfield'. And it's one of those 'I liked it BUT...' movies. I was never actually SCARED-scared, because a) giant monster and b) giant monster eating rejects from the cast of 'Friends' and c) you know how sometimes you don't see someone for five years and then you run into them three times in a single week and you're like, what are the odds? Sorta like that only with giant monster, and d) and by far the most important, giant monster who looks wayyyy too much like Fin Fang Foom from Marvel Comics, so at an absolutely critical part of the film, a part where the moviemakers obviously want you to be going 'OH NO OH NO AAAAAAA' the only thought in my head was:





And I'm guessing that's probably not what J.J. Abrams had in mind.

On the plus side, great demolition effects--I honestly couldn't tell what was CGI and what was actually getting smashed. The sequence down in the subway tunnel was really well-done. Good build-up, good use of sound and darkness, and ohmigod I think 'Never Turn On the Night Vision Feature' just bumped 'Never Go Down In the Basement' out of the top spot on my 'How to Survive a Horror Film' chart.

And most importantly (to a geek like me), the movie left enough things hinted at but unexplained to keep geeks happily nattering together for years. I've been thinking about the story for hours since I saw it, partly just doing the usual Monday morning quarterbacking of what the characters did wrong ("this really does underscore my need to have a flashlight and comfortable shoes with me wherever I go...and do I need to rethink my feelings on handgun ownership?") but also trying to work out the biology and logic behind the monster(s) and the whole attack. ("If I was a huge monster with a long neck chomping down on a victim from a 90-degree angle, how could I eat him and leave the head behind? Feet, maybe. But the head would only be left if I spat him out. And why would I spit him out? Because while I obviously associated human-shaped things with food, I didn't actually like the taste of human flesh. And *that* would imply trainers without an available source of humans, which in turn implies aliens, which means...") And I can feel tens of thousands of other geeks out there, each coming up with their own theories, and whenever that happens it's a good thing.

But you know what REALLY got me excited at the movies today?

The poster for 'Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay'. Oh my GOD.

Comments

[keelie.livejournal.com]

Apparently the monster was a baby who was lost and scared. And once the writers figured that out, it really made their creative choices easier.

I read that in an article somewhere. And I was like 'Well. Maybe that would've been nice to SHARE WITH THE AUDIENCE cause I seemed to have MISSED the part where I was supposed to feel bad for the thing EATING EVERYONE."

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

While I'm happy if this made the writers type a little faster (though, as you point out, they did a lousy job of passing this idea along to the audience), ecologically it makes even *less* sense. There are parents out there 20 times as large? How do they fart without causing tidal waves? What do they eat?

No. Sorry. Compared to that, my idea that this is a construct sent by some wacky alien race of Ashton Kutchers for a brutal intergalactic version of "Punk'd" makes more sense.

[keelie.livejournal.com]

I kind of also wondered about why the military was so keen on not only letting helicopters lift off right next to the thing, but instead of flying AWAY from the big creature, the helicopters were like 'Be sure to maintain a distance where it can lunge up and get us'.

[furtim.livejournal.com]

I automatically identify with the giant monster eating everyone, so perhaps I enjoyed the movie more than you did by being part of the target demographic. ;)

[lixie.livejournal.com]

I wasn't geeked out over it except in a preparedness mindset. Like comfortable footwear. Getting in shape. (39 flights of stairs in heels? Oh, next month is going to kick my unhealthy patootie.) And why didn't they take the horse and carriage??

But I saw the poster for Harold and Kumar today too! Squee!

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

Oh, TOTAL preparedness mindset. Right now I'm looking around the office for the best objects to use as makeshift clubs for when the Space Crabs attack.

They didn't take the horse because they did not realize they were in a Disaster Movie, and that in disaster movies Animals Always Survive. Speaking of which: they're hip 20somethings in a city that's being attacked by a giant monster, and no one ever makes a monster movie reference? That REALLY stretched my suspension of disbelief.

[nmsunbear.livejournal.com]

I saw a preview for the H&K movie (I think it was before "King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters," which you really must see), and it looks AWESOME.

[ronsonbeck.livejournal.com]

I will never be able to watch "Cloverfield" again without thinking of Fin Fang Foom.

Just like, thanks to fightguy, I can't watch the scene at the Woolworth's in "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" without thinking of Turner D. Century.

What next? Someone going to forever associate something in a movie I like with Xemnu the Titan? Or Dr. Bong, perhaps?

Having said all that, I saw an early version of the Cloverfield monster that I thought was MUCH cooler. It was like the guys who made "The Host" were given a picture of a blue whale and told, "Okay, do something creepy with that."