I watched Cloverfield last night. I bring this up because I was very impressed with the stunningly clever marketing scheme Paramount approved of, which pretty much guaranteed huge box-office hits whether the movie was good, or just complete trash.

My synopsis is brief, on this one. It was the most unconventional film to hit the theaters in ages, and I was impressed with the whole presentation of the film. It was very discreet, albeit couldn't resist a few "cheesy" moments, and very suspenseful. The filming was convincing, very convincing with the cuts, shakes, and expected mishandling made by just about every human on this planet who has used a handicam for the first time. It was suspenseful, with some very nice occasional imagery. It was one of those films that can be described more as an "experience" than an actual American film, since most movies these days tend to present themselves too obviously, waving information clearly back and forth across the screen to make sure everybody gets it without strain. Which is why the word I specifically use, unconventional, seems to describe the film very well. Obviously, it was in mind when developing the film as well, and achieved exactly -- or mostly -- as was intended.

Did I mention I enjoyed it? Well, I did. I could think up a million ways to improve, of course, but we all could, due to human bias and preference. But, it was somebody else's piece of work, meant to draw in a large crowd and throw something unexpected at them, and it could have achieved that no more than it did.



This post will inevitably be followed by narrow-minded, unselfconscious insults at the movie, especially in respect to the ending. Hopefully, there will be some thoughtfulness in there as well, as I know there ARE people out there who exercise their brains when watching movies, as opposed to just making their decisions on complete bias and immediate, shallow impressions.

For those of you who just HATE the film and see no reason to enjoy it on any level, I don't blame you; I'd be irate too, if Paramount Pictures was laughing triumphantly at my displeasure, while my ticket money jingled around in their pockets. ;)

The concept of the entire movie being shown through a camcorder is interesting, though I haven't seen it yet.  The whole shaking screen during combat such as in the Bourne movies actually made me queezy when seeing it on the big screen so I'm not sure about seeing an entire movie like that.  I'm interested to see what the monster looks like since they hyped it so much; here's hoping it's just not a big lizard.

I read an interview in which the creator said that he wanted to create an American monster akin to Godzilla so I'm guessing plenty of sequels are planned, but hopefully they don't stay with the camcorder idea for the sequels.  It sounds like a cool idea the first time around but there's no reason to copy it over and over.

No, I agree. But, it did wonders for special effects, making them sparse and more convincing, rather than constant and transparent.

I was dizzy as hell when I came out of there :P

Hmm, I actually hadn't heard about this. Maybe I've just been living under a rock. In any case, it sounds intriguing.

I rather like the viscerality provided by handheld filming in action type movies (the Bourne movies are the best example; they're some of the only action movies I've enjoyed, and I think in part it's due to the fact that the action feels very real). Of course, when used in excess I'm sure it's a bad thing, but hey, what isn't?

One of my friends utterly despised it. Then I saw this blog. Hmm, interesting.

I should get a ticket. I hope motion sickness doesn't get to me.

Oh yeah, you have a motion sickness problem... hmm :S I don't know how this might effect you.

The could get used to it by watching anyone of the numerous television shows that use swaying hand-held cameras to show 'gritty realism'.  Actually, at this point it's been done to death, so it's just annoying.

You could take Dramamine before watching the movie, it does help with motion sickness. But I dunno about taking medicine to play games or to watch movies...

http://galileoandeinstein.physics.virginia.edu/lectures/scaling.html