[Bigfish]

I rented Cloverfield this weekend after reading reviews where it averaged 7.8 out of 10 stars.  I interested to learn the comments of others that have watched this movie.  The movie was just okay for me and I would not rate it 7.8 stars but possibly my view is biased as I am pretty confident it was intended for a younger audience.

Ken

[Kevin Haskins]

It sucked.....   I would have rather spent two hours flossing my teeth or waxing my lawnmower. 

[topround]

I actually enjoyed it and I am not THAT young. I went in to it thinking it would suck, but it delivered the thrills and scares pretty well. Special effects were very good too.

[ajzepp]

Cloverfield + 100" screen + SVS PB13 Ultra = 

[satfrat]

It sucked.....   I would have rather spent two hours flossing my teeth or waxing my lawnmower. 

I support your outlook 110%. This movie was by far the worse movie of 2008,,,, so far. My only regret was that I didn't read your recommendations before seeing the movie Kevin. I just so happen to have a brand new lawnmower.   

1.5 out of 5 stars! 

Cheers,
Robin

[PhilNYC]

I got motion sickness watching this movie...spent the last 30 minutes trying to focus on not throwing up...

[Bigfish]

It sucked.....   I would have rather spent two hours flossing my teeth or waxing my lawnmower. 

I support your outlook 110%. This movie was by far the worse movie of 2008,,,, so far. My only regret was that I didn't read your recommendations before seeing the movie Kevin. I just so happen to have a brand new lawnmower.   

1.5 out of 5 stars! 

Cheers,
Robin

Guys:

When I started this thread yesterday I wondered if I missed something about this movie because I really did read reviews where it averaged a rating of 7.8 stars out of a possible 10.  I had a hell of a time watching it and did so thinking that it would have to get better.  I was being kind when I said it was just okay for me - the ended movie finally ended and I was pissed for wasting my time watching it.  I honestly thought how could it have been rated 7.8 stars?

Ken

[goldlizsts]

I got motion sickness watching this movie...spent the last 30 minutes trying to focus on not throwing up...

After I saw the Blair Witch movie couple of years ago, I felt afterwards that I was "suckered" in.  After this Cloverfield, I felt worse.  I realized how "dumb" to have spent that $11 and the couple of hours of self-torturing, kept waiting for it to get better.

[Bill Baker]

I am glad I read this thread. I had this movie in my hands yesterday at the local CVS but figured I would wait till I read some feedback about it here on AC.
 After my experience with "I am Legend", which was a big disappointment, I figure I better be more carefull about waisting time and money on movies.
 It seems nowadays, you get all the highlights of movies simply by watching the previews.
 Maybe I will borrow Cloverfield and watch it on a boring, rainy night after my kids go to bed so I am not out anything if I have the same experiences as everyone here.

[goldlizsts]

I am glad I read this thread. I had this movie in my hands yesterday at the local CVS but figured I would wait till I read some feedback about it here on AC.
 After my experience with "I am Legend", which was a big disappointment, I figure I better be more carefull about waisting time and money on movies.
 It seems nowadays, you get all the highlights of movies simply by watching the previews.
 Maybe I will borrow Cloverfield and watch it on a boring, rainy night after my kids go to bed so I am not out anything if I have the same experiences as everyone here.

Bill,

With "I am Legend", at least you can make some sense as to what was going on.  For the most of the early part of Cloverfield, you would not know what's happening, unless you're been told about the storyline.  The mostly ever-so-close closeups just make your head spin, and your brain kept wondering what the hell was happening.  The director purposely kept it that way, figuring you'd figure out that it's the monster that was supposed to show up.  And, the characters in there were just as clueless.  That was the intended effect.

I think they should package the Blair Witch and Cloverfield together as a twin-pack.  Even at "2 for the price of 1", it'll be a hard sell.  At least both will end up in the trash bin together.

[Kevin Haskins]

It sucked.....   I would have rather spent two hours flossing my teeth or waxing my lawnmower. 

I support your outlook 110%. This movie was by far the worse movie of 2008,,,, so far. My only regret was that I didn't read your recommendations before seeing the movie Kevin. I just so happen to have a brand new lawnmower.   

1.5 out of 5 stars! 

Cheers,
Robin

Ha!   Yea.... get the Turtle Wax out Robin.       

[PhilNYC]

I am glad I read this thread. I had this movie in my hands yesterday at the local CVS but figured I would wait till I read some feedback about it here on AC.
 After my experience with "I am Legend", which was a big disappointment, I figure I better be more carefull about waisting time and money on movies.
 It seems nowadays, you get all the highlights of movies simply by watching the previews.
 Maybe I will borrow Cloverfield and watch it on a boring, rainy night after my kids go to bed so I am not out anything if I have the same experiences as everyone here.

Bill,

With "I am Legend", at least you can make some sense as to what was going on.  For the most of the early part of Cloverfield, you would not know what's happening, unless you're been told about the storyline.  The mostly ever-so-close closeups just make your head spin, and your brain kept wondering what the hell was happening.  The director purposely kept it that way, figuring you'd figure out that it's the monster that was supposed to show up.  And, the characters in there were just as clueless.  That was the intended effect.

I think they should package the Blair Witch and Cloverfield together as a twin-pack.  Even at "2 for the price of 1", it'll be a hard sell.  At least both will end up in the trash bin together.

I actually thought that the overall concept for Cloverfield was excellent...a monster movie as seen from the viewpoint of some average everyday people (instead of from the military, or the government, or from some individual who becomes a hero and stops the monster).  The two main issues I have with Cloverfield is (1) the characters made WAY too many stupid and unbelievable decisions, and (2) the camera work was far too jagged (even if it was supposed to mimic someone's "real" handling of a camcorder, it induced far too much nausea) to watch for a solid 90 minutes.

I never saw Blair Witch, but I can appreciate that it was made for $40K by a bunch of film students.  Cloverfield was made by a bigtime studio....

[Kevin Haskins]

I am glad I read this thread. I had this movie in my hands yesterday at the local CVS but figured I would wait till I read some feedback about it here on AC.
 After my experience with "I am Legend", which was a big disappointment, I figure I better be more carefull about waisting time and money on movies.
 It seems nowadays, you get all the highlights of movies simply by watching the previews.
 Maybe I will borrow Cloverfield and watch it on a boring, rainy night after my kids go to bed so I am not out anything if I have the same experiences as everyone here.

Bill,

With "I am Legend", at least you can make some sense as to what was going on.  For the most of the early part of Cloverfield, you would not know what's happening, unless you're been told about the storyline.  The mostly ever-so-close closeups just make your head spin, and your brain kept wondering what the hell was happening.  The director purposely kept it that way, figuring you'd figure out that it's the monster that was supposed to show up.  And, the characters in there were just as clueless.  That was the intended effect.

I think they should package the Blair Witch and Cloverfield together as a twin-pack.  Even at "2 for the price of 1", it'll be a hard sell.  At least both will end up in the trash bin together.

I actually thought that the overall concept for Cloverfield was excellent...a monster movie as seen from the viewpoint of some average everyday people (instead of from the military, or the government, or from some individual who becomes a hero and stops the monster).  The two main issues I have with Cloverfield is (1) the characters made WAY too many stupid and unbelievable decisions, and (2) the camera work was far too jagged (even if it was supposed to mimic someone's "real" handling of a camcorder, it induced far too much nausea) to watch for a solid 90 minutes.

I never saw Blair Witch, but I can appreciate that it was made for $40K by a bunch of film students.  Cloverfield was made by a bigtime studio....

I like how the military had a brigade size force camped right outside of New York.   The monster arrived and within 30 minutes you have tanks rolling down the streets.   

The characters where not real believable, sort of like a cheap low-budget film where you grab a couple of your buddies to do the acting.

[reddmadder]

Hi,
 I saw Cloverfield at the Archlight ,which is the top cinema chain in LA.
 I went into it very low expectations and was pleasantly surprised because of the amount of  suspense it generated.
  Keep in mind the sound and image were exceptional,each time the creature stomped I felt it in my chest. I also didn't read any of the reviews(I usually don't)and thought the cgi work was exceptional.
  The visual fx were done by the Phil Tippitt studio...the only guy ,who IMHO,does the best digital work right now.So it got high points from me for it's depiction of the chaos and destruction the creature created.
  I do think it was a mistake to show the creature at the end ,because the design was NOT exceptional in closeup.
  All in all,a good diversion for a "monster " flick.

[launche]

This movie has some holes, most do, but I will say after just accepting a few doesn't make much sense things, I went along for the ride.  Considering this is kind of the Godzilla concept, attempted in 2007, check your reality at the door.

I actually like this first person type perspective, most movies I've seen that use it I've enjoyed.  It's nice to see sometimes rather that the standard camera work.  You get to see some angles and frames that you otherwise just would not get.  From a technical standpoint (not that it break new ground) I enjoyed this film.  I really liked alot of the visual effects (I don't scrutized artifacts and noise etc...)  Given that this movie and many others these days are largely CGI based, I HAVE to respect the Incredible amount of work and talent that goes into these pictures.  Enough not to just dismiss it as a sucky movie.

After watching this I couldn't help but think how desensitized we are, even just to movies.  This film took a lot of effort to make, the craft is going unnoticed.  When you start to look at how these movies are put together I would hope one has a better sense of appreciation.  Movie crews and some actors are just doing extraordinary work.  Now I don't mean to get on the soapbox and especially not to defend this movie but movies take a MUCH greater effort to pulloff than music and I'd hope we have that perspective.  I am personally trying to deal with my expectations as they sometimes kill a movie for me.

When recently watching "There Will Be Blood" I made sure to check myself and really try to tune into what Daniel Day and the director were attempting.  When I re-watched "The Machinist", I was just taken with Bale's effort.  So technically I can appreciated what Cloverfield conveys and IMO on that merit probably shouldn't be tossed in the waste of time, sucked category.

I have to constantly remind myself to enjoy the escapism of these movies and stop trying to be a damn critic.  It's a struggle with all media and with each encounter.

Now there were a few key elements in Cloverfield which I totally missed that were revealed in the bonus footage.  but  guess there would be no way f them too introduce this information.  but there may likely be a Cloverfield 2, for better or for worse.

I saw this movie without reading any reviews or hearing much, same with the Blair Witch Project and I was pretty drawn in on BWP.

[ajzepp]

Well said, Launche! 

[NewBuyer]

...I like how the military had a brigade size force camped right outside of New York.   The monster arrived and within 30 minutes you have tanks rolling down the streets...

Well by design, we never objectively see the monster arrive - it only receives focus when its presence very forcefully intrudes into the myopic world of the self-absorbed characters. So for all the movie-watcher knows, the military could presumably have been following the creature for an unknown time, without notifying the public and causing a panic.

I think the show creators were having great fun with that same contrast idea throughout the whole film. Personally I really enjoyed the movie, and thought the effects were excellent - I hope they make another one!

[satfrat]

The only good thing forthcoming from a sequel will be I won't be making the same mistake by wasting my money on such a stinker. 

Cheers,
Robin

[PhilNYC]

I would entertain watching a sequel *only* if the camcorder they find in the rubble has better image-stabilization...

[Turnandcough]

I'm not sure what I found more nauseating - the jumpy camera, the pointless plot or the annoying characters.
My opinion: a total waste of time for anyone who had the patience to sit through the whole thing without hitting the FF button.