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 (nobody)...and 379 guests Last 5 registered Oplandisks nothingstar N_loop yipe foxtrotromeo Browse members... |
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Members 8025Messages 2614103 Today 16 Topics 127542 |
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I thought it was good. Not great, but good. Some scenes were pretty immersive, like when they were on top of the tilted building looking down at the monster and some torn up city... that was awesome. And the scene where they were scrambling and the army was rolling through with tanks all around them. That was pretty cool too. I was happy with it. |
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here the big big ugly monster... |
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saw this yesterday. infuriating lack of closure quite entertaining |
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you've summed how I feel in much less words, nicely done. |
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I found it very entertaining.... |
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It was good, but the scale of the monster was a bit iffy. One minute its head was the size of a building, the next the size of a tower block. In reality, fighter jets would have ripped it apart within 10 minutes of its arrival. |
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it happened in real life, it wasnt a film, but they had to cover it up |
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oh right, was it on 9/11/01? |
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I've seen it again since my original musings and it hasn't held up in my opinion. Characterisation is paper thin and every whiny, two dimensional character is massively irritating. It's a relief when they get bumped off which would be fine and could even make the film more fun if you didn't have to listen to them ramble on about utter shit, and make unbelievably stupid decisions, for quite so long beforehand. Also the monster design is terribly uninspired. I like the unsolved mystery though and there is some excellent camera work. It takes skill to make the thing look unplanned but then just slip in this perfectly framed shot every now and then. A sequel is apparently in the works which will probably ruin everything that is good about this one. |
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I must admit, the bit with the leaning towers was really well done. |
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a sequel would be interesting. i'm guessing just another file on cloverfield, as they implied that the movie was only one of many accounts found after the event, which could be very well done, like an extension of the first film, and plenty of space for little throw backs like seeing the group from the first film and getting the same scene from different angles. i could only pray that they don't go the hollywood route and make it a standard monster movie, army people "how do we kill it?" with the weird but charming layman scientist who magically figures it all out. i heard the alternate reality they released (website? comics?) was pretty good - anybody partake? |
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why do they always explain shit in sequels? some shit doesn't need explaining |
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I've heard rumor of this sequel idea like you say, where they just follow a different group around as tons of people likely would have had cameras rolling. But they'd have to find a way to cover new ground, maybe overlapping a bit with the first but then continuing to follow the beast after the first group is dead. I liked Cloverfield a lot. I agree that it played way better on a small screen than in the theatre. I also thought Blair Witch was better in the TV format. Part of what made Cloverfield so good in my opinion is the characters themselves, even though a lot of people complained about them being yuppies/assholes etc. I liked the way they were able to edit "flashbacks" with by recording over the old tape. I thought it a very clever way to develop the characters while staying within the cinéma vérité theme. And even though people complained that it ended abruptly or without explanation, I liked how it ended with the main characters on their date at Coney Island. It added weight or importance to the end of the film. Anyway I really enjoyed it and I think it's one of the best American monster movies ever made. |
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One minute its head was the size of a building, the next the size of a tower block. So... it was still the size of a building? |
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cloverfield isn't bad. it's faulty in every way i'd expected but watchable enough. it's layout and progression is comfortable which might be because it's a funny mix of predictable and visually exciting. was better than rec which had a lot of similar faults only it took itself a lot more seriously. |
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jj abrams |
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[REC] is far superior in my opinion. Incredibly tense stuff, an interesting story with a nice way of keeping everyone trapped in the one building and, most important of all, a slightly plausible reason other than 'people are gonna wanna know how it went down!!!!!' for the guy to even be filming in the first place. |
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Plus [REC] has great incidental character development that flows naturally from the situation. You know enough about the tenants of the building just through small interactions with each other and the camera so that no decision seems surprising or down right stupid (as I felt with Cloverfield). Great movie. |
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cloverfield didn't punch above it's weight. rec just felt laboured and over exposed or something and felt like it was trying very hard. that woman screamed toooo much and cut the tension in half. all dramatic happenings in the film were over emphasised, it wasn't very subtle. everything about the story and characters was a bit lame imo like the woman with sick child later suspected of being infected ect. the reasons for capturing every moment weren't much more legit than cloverfield. i quickly lost interest in where they were going or what was chasing them or who was screaming. BUT it's because everything about rec is asking me to expect better from it. where as cloverfield is very much just saying "you want independence day mixed with the illusion of real time drama all rendered to hell with impressive computer work? here it is!". it really is a more standard film than rec but better cos it does it's job properly. i need to watch rec again really tho excuse the horror geek rant |
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one day one day i will make a horror film and it will scare you all so much you'll eat your nuts off. it will haaave....a mad person with a knife in it, and he'll wear a mask made of |
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I think [REC] takes itself far less seriously than Cloverfield. [REC] has a lot of funny moments and the characters convey the ludicrousness of the situation in a far more naturalistic way rather than trying to ram the point home with ham fisted dialogue. [REC] also didn't feel the need to batter you over the head with broad sweeping social commentary that added nothing and was included to help the audience feel that they 'get it' as there is no real conclusion or explanation (unless you're willing to trawl through all the online bits of information which requires you to take the thing far more seriously then anybody should). I don't understand how you can say the reasons for filming aren't much more legitimate than Cloverfield, they're filming a documentary TV show! The film (like Cloverfield) contains a lot of genre clichés but subverts them in a far more entertaining and convincing manner through the camcorder technique. When the zombies are rushing at the screen and the single camera turns away from the action you are still very much aware that the creatures are behind 'you' to the point it makes you uncomfortable. Being stuck with a single viewpoint in an uncontrollable situation is also used to greatly convey the claustrophobia and desperation the characters are feeling being stuck in a building with a bunch of brain chomping nutters. In Cloverfield it just feels gimmicky and the tension isn't built through any other reason than Hud is a terrible camera man with a disability that stops him from being able to focus on things clearly. I can't remember my point but yes they're both better than Diary of the Dead. |
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yeah but.. the mood captured in rec came short of what it was trying to convey. i honestly feel it's visually tarty. cloverfield is much more tarty yet it's essence is about all that eg; massive bridge collapsing. for eggsample the end of rec where it strained to squeeze in a room full of gothy se7en-esq news paper clippings revealing a slapped together substory didn't feel right at all. the only way i can put it is 'too showy'. i dunno. i watched 7 horror films that day and had rinsed my patience for screams of 'pablo'. it's really late but i'm going to watch it now with a fresher head. today i only watched 2 horror films. |
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not enough tension the apartment does not have enough character and presence as a confined space. far too much drama, it's almost like some spanish soap HONESTLY watch it with this in mind. relies far too heavily on loud noises and staged surprises for scares which is a problem that really got bad towards the run up to the pent house. the characters are awfully plain; neurotic woman with 'sick' child, the token chinese couple, the reasonable and brave fireman, the shaky cop trying to control things, the small-time female presenter feeling it's her duty to record this all. the end! the end is sooo terrible. 'pablo! pablo look! i know we have more pressing issues to be worried about n'all cos we just heard something running around in the attic...but look at these tattered clippings uncovering a strange mystery...pablo! these papers piece together with things that were hinted at earlier in the film!!! pablo look! a really loud tape recorder with more secrets to reveal. of course i am aware that we should be quiet and really it's noisy enough with me CONSTANTLY whimpering and screeching, but we must play this TAPE PABLO!!! cloverfield isn't much more sophisticated than that, in fact it's worse, but it's not trying to be sophisticated. rec was tho; rec is shooting for dark, tense, gritty, real, human, and flops on most of that. it does take itself very seriously, cloverfield dosn't demand any of that. all cloverfield wants is for you to move with the cardboard characters and watch them on a very american journey across a reduced city to find the girl he never had the courage to say I LOVE YOU to. drama and tension is actually handled more carefully in cloverfield, i was surprised at that actually. i had high hopes for rec and was really disappointed, i had very low expectations for cloverfield but was actually given some ballsout american thrills. cloverfield wins. blairwitch beats it all of course, rec needed to take valuable examples from blairwitches approach to hand-held horror. RANT STOP |
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Please! Give reasons for things like "drama and tension is actually handled more carefully in cloverfield" because I want to like this film more but can't see how you can say things like that! I think you completely misunderstand [REC]. It's not shooting for tense, gritty etc. as you say but for a straight generic horror film which exploits genre conventions through the way it's being filmed, something which Cloverfield completely failed at in my opinion. The character outlines and plot points (like the end) all fall in to bog standard horror territory but the small characterisations and palpable tension created by the format are exceptional. Take, for example, the full reveal of the 'creature' in both films. In Cloverfield we have a big pan up to an obviously CG monster and it's completely underwhelming. In [REC] the characters are sat in complete darkness trying to make absolutely no noise and using the night vision of the camera to see. Through a grainy green haze we see just the pupils of the eyes reflecting and slowly the thing moves forward and emerges from the darkness in to frame, clawing around the room in the dark, before looking right through the camera and straight at us. It's chilling! I don't know what you were expecting from the thing but I went in to it with no expectations which probably helped massively. Anyway, I've enjoyed this and am glad we have differing opinions. Please help me to love Cloverfield more. |
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rec isn't so bad, it's just i was expecting something really impressive and unquestionably scary. i should look at it as really more of simple but generally pleasing horror. you're right. cloverfield had a very typical structure to it's chronological progression. events in the film are laid out in a sequence that's reassuringly linear, very american stuff. it goes; party (character introduction), panic hits city (introduction to body of film in this case 'city wide threat'), panic grips city/bridge collapse (chaos, the threat has revealed that it is bigger than first assumed), girlfriend phones (beginning of quest, as a goal for the films adventure has been established), find route to girl (film is now in full swing, the four characters are neatly packaged, the goal is clear). this is now the mid section of the film where most of the basics have been set. now the film must develop/deviate on these; after big monster and military - route blocked/stuck in subway (change in temperature, this is an intermission that allows for calm and reflection for the audience, it's vital). 'let's go through the tunnels' - scuttley things (the threat/monster reveals a new obstacle, a classic film move). military (a kind of mid point where it's established that EVEN THE GUYS WITH GUNS ARE GETTING FUCKED UP) also death of lower level ranking companion (a death at this point narrows the group down which is good, also some violent human loss at late-mid part of a film contributes to a hastened fear in the remaining characters that's needed for the final section). leaving military/the final stretch (what was crowded panic before is now replaced with a high adrenaline night running mood that's a wistful mix of being close to the goal yet surrounded by a lonely/isolated kind of danger; 'no one left but us' kind of vibe). the goal/tower (now we are here but confronted with an impossible task, also it may well be all to late. this again is classic. the mood inside the deserted towers esp the leaning one is nicely done too. |
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I really liked it, good clean monster fun. and odette yustman is crazy attractive too |
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final section; finding girl alive/escape (typical american story of a mans ambition overcoming huge odds, she is alive but has a busted leg and can only limp making the escape more improbable. the audience is left hoping that they don't die after all the dramas they've sat through with these characters, only can't help but feel they will. very formulaic). i can't remember the end too clearly but there is a 'we made it' followed by helicopter crash u-turn and the big reveal of the 'threat' which is expected of a film with this layout THE ENDDD. the formula is stiff but right. also the scenery sets about 60% of the films atmosphere, blairwitch 80%, rec 10%. rec just dosn't get a mood out of that apartment which is weird because it's a wonderful space to play with. most of it looks nice but somehow it isn't used. i think it's cos rec is too hooked up in focusing on drama. rec fucks up cos of too much screaming and drama DRAMAMAMA !PABLOOO! without enough dynamics between quiet and loud you get a bored of one or the other pretty quick. the end; i just got pissed off cos this scene nearly did what i wanted, then got too noisy again. i felt a bit insulted by it's noise cos it used it as a means to assault me into being nervy rather than building any kind of real fear. i'll say i like rec enough, it's not a rob zombie film or anything... ignore bad spellings i can't be bothered to proof read |
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I was going to write a big thing about how there's a great contrast between the screaming and the quiet in [REC] (it takes a good 30 minutes maybe, before anything horror related happens and builds and builds to the admittedly screaming but perfectly fitting, given the circumstances, conclusion.) but this is pointless. Maybe our drivel will help someone else seek out these films though as both should be seen. |
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yeah don't write that. at least you quit while you were ahead. i wasted good arse scratchin time on the minutiae of a film i'm not even that hyped about. yeah so enjoy cloberflield it's alright, i'm now going to watch strawberry estates which is blairwitch in an abandoned asylum SOUNDS SO ACE. |
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