First time "Blogging," I hope this goes over well.
To start off, I am a huge fan of giant monster movies and I have seen almost every one (name it and there is a good chance I know it). I have heard a lot of negative comments towards Cloverfield and based on the clip we saw I was able to understand some of them. First of all, the way the movie was shot (the person recording it on his camera) was not only annoying, but sickening to watch. I felt like I was going to fall out of my seat from dizziness. I heard that the movie was filmed this way because it resembles the footage from 9/11, and that this is some way of trying to set an atmosphere similar to that of 9/11. This concept was ripped right out of 1954s Gojira (the first Godzilla movie), where the concept of nuclear disaster (which Godzilla is a symbol of) leads to a very dark and grim tone, especially coming from people who experienced nuclear devastation not even a decade prior. But in Cloverfield, it just comes off as obnoxious and nauseating. It is a good idea in theory, but it clearly was not executed properly as it did not affect the feel of the movie at all (I wish I could say the same for my stomach). I was a little disappointed to see that monster moves still seem to be playing catch-up to Godzilla.
The set up for the monster was pretty cool, especially when the head of the statue of liberty came flying in. I was kind of bothered that a group of people gathered around it and started using their smartphones to take pictures of it. It is little details like this that take a timeless film and make it seem outdated. Again, like my rant above, it is the same concept: they are trying to set the scene but it just comes off as annoying and unnatural. If the head of the statue of liberty, all torn up and smashed, fell in front of me, I would not take a video of it on my phone, I would be a good 50 yards in the opposite direction, running for my life.
As for the monster itself, I cannot say anything (we did not see any footage of it). I would like to see the full movie sometime, just because I think it is great that people are still making giant monster movies in an attempt to keep the genre alive.
Also, when I accepted the invite for the blog, it forced me to use my personal email and I cannot find anyway to change it or add my name in. Any help for a technologically incapable human would be much appreciated!
~Ryan Lantz
To start off, I am a huge fan of giant monster movies and I have seen almost every one (name it and there is a good chance I know it). I have heard a lot of negative comments towards Cloverfield and based on the clip we saw I was able to understand some of them. First of all, the way the movie was shot (the person recording it on his camera) was not only annoying, but sickening to watch. I felt like I was going to fall out of my seat from dizziness. I heard that the movie was filmed this way because it resembles the footage from 9/11, and that this is some way of trying to set an atmosphere similar to that of 9/11. This concept was ripped right out of 1954s Gojira (the first Godzilla movie), where the concept of nuclear disaster (which Godzilla is a symbol of) leads to a very dark and grim tone, especially coming from people who experienced nuclear devastation not even a decade prior. But in Cloverfield, it just comes off as obnoxious and nauseating. It is a good idea in theory, but it clearly was not executed properly as it did not affect the feel of the movie at all (I wish I could say the same for my stomach). I was a little disappointed to see that monster moves still seem to be playing catch-up to Godzilla.
The set up for the monster was pretty cool, especially when the head of the statue of liberty came flying in. I was kind of bothered that a group of people gathered around it and started using their smartphones to take pictures of it. It is little details like this that take a timeless film and make it seem outdated. Again, like my rant above, it is the same concept: they are trying to set the scene but it just comes off as annoying and unnatural. If the head of the statue of liberty, all torn up and smashed, fell in front of me, I would not take a video of it on my phone, I would be a good 50 yards in the opposite direction, running for my life.
As for the monster itself, I cannot say anything (we did not see any footage of it). I would like to see the full movie sometime, just because I think it is great that people are still making giant monster movies in an attempt to keep the genre alive.
Also, when I accepted the invite for the blog, it forced me to use my personal email and I cannot find anyway to change it or add my name in. Any help for a technologically incapable human would be much appreciated!
~Ryan Lantz
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