blahblah454

Personally I loved the movie. But all I read when I am looking at reviews is people crying about 911.
This movie had nothing to do with a terrorist attack that happened 7 years ago, why liken the two together? Sure it happened to be set in the city but big deal! Its a bloody monster movie, a monster that comes out of the sea! What bigger and more recognizable American city is located next to the ocean? oh yea, I forgot, there isn't one.
And why are people so upset over a monster movie taking place in Americas crown city because a terrorist attack happened there 7 bloody years ago, and yet they don't bat an eye at all these war movies that come out that depict REAL LIFE EVENTS. I just don't understand this at all. 911 never went through my head once in this movie, wait I lied, it did once time: When the building crashed to the ground I thought, that looked kinda like a demolition does, or kinda like the trade center looked like going down.

Why would someone having the same name mean they are the same person? Can't people have the same name? I bet there are hundreds of people named Robert Hawkins. Having the same name does not mean its the same character. Man people make me sick.

And even if I hated this movie I am pretty sure I would feel the same about people comparing a monster movie to a terrorist event. America needs to stop bitching and moaning about this.

allaboutmusic

I haven't seen it yet, but all of my friends who have seen it have pretty much said it was a waste of their time. As I have not seen it, I have no opinion about it at present, but I have been persuaded not to spend money on watching it on a cinema.

Charlatan

The only problem I have is that I haven't seen it...

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Willravel

I enjoyed it.

QuasiMondo

I got motion sick and yakked all over the back of the theater seat. Regurgitated nachos is not a pretty thing to look at.

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Willravel

You need a stronger constitution for a gubmint job. Man up!

blahblah454

I loved it. I think everyone hates it because its not your average Hollywood crap that comes out. It doesn't have any American flags waving in the background. There is no definite start, introduction of characters, big problem that has to be solved, everything magically gets wrapped up and everyone lives happily ever after.

I thought this was one of the best movies I have ever seen.

Willravel

I hope there's another one! Maybe another POV from different poor bastards trying to survive while documenting the monster?

mixedmedia

I haven't heard any complaints about it, but the emotional correlations with 9/11 as an event, not as a terrorist attack, are pretty obvious and hard to ignore. That scene when they are all running down the street to escape the cloud of debris after the collapse of a building is pretty frigging correlative, lol.

Personally, I'm not offended by it, but any movie involving a disaster in Manhattan is going to revive those memories. Can't really get away from it. Not yet, at least.

I wasn't that fond of the movie only because it didn't have much impact on me. Meh.

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Cynthetiq

I saw it before it was released and as soon as I saw the building collapse and the dust cloud coming at the camera, them ducking into the store, the cloud passing the front of the window, the walking wounded covered in grey dust.

It was EXACTLY like the photos I saw at the Prince Street Gallery in SoHo. It is not much different than the rest of the news footage, just shot by all the New Yorkers that live and breathe the city.

It stung a bit to see it.

As far as it being a sore subject, it is for some since some people 7 years isn't enough time to heal the wounds opened by that day. I can tell you while I did not lose any immediate family members, the wound for me is still sore as I lost a location and building I loved visiting. Many people would go to the visitor center paying alot to see the views, when just going to the bar at Windows of the World and having a beer for $5 was a great way to pass an evening after work.

As far as being a great movie, it wasn't IMO it was a good monster movie and I love Godzilla/Gamera. I look forward to Cloverfield 2.

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Seaver

This movie made Godzilla vs. King Kong look like Schindler's List. There, I said it.

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Willravel

You cried during Godzilla vs. King Kong?

Cynthetiq

well finally dug up a full image of the monster... you can buy the toy from Hasbro.com for $99.99

http://hasbro.com/default.cfm?page=p...oduct_id=21030

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Jove

I don't think the movie had much impact on anyone because the chances of a large alien/monster attacking the world is kind of low, but weirder things have happened.

Plan9

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Willravel

It's hard to put statistics on something that's never happened.

sadistikdreams

I loved it.

It's like nothing I've ever seen before.

I think alot of people disliked it because they didn't really know about it beforehand. Yes, it is shaky camera, so you may get sick. No, you dont see the monster as much as you would in a Godzilla flick. No, there isnt a scientist who explains everything in absolute detail. And yes, at its core, its a romance movie, set in the backdrop of a disaster movie.

The whole 9-11 thing... It's very American. The connections are all there, so it's hard not to compare it.

Willravel

sadkstik gets it! Jaws was about a father finding his place in the world, not a shark. Cloverfield was about a relationship between two people, and that's what makes it a great movie. I wasn't convinced at the start of the movie that the romantic thing would work with the monster backdrop, but by the end I really got it. It worked; Hud being there for Rob and Rob being able to set aside the logic of fleeing because he wanted it to work with Beth so much. JJ Abrams really made that work, too. The way Rob, Hud and Lily had to cross the collapsing buildings was completely intense, and then immediately after they actually found Beth. It was this perfectly intense and beautiful moment. That was a big part of why it worked so well.

Frosstbyte

Everything about that is disappointing and not particularly in accord with what I remember seeing in the movie. Oh well.

Shauk

I'm gonna uh.. "acquire" this movie now and ill get back to you later

i just watched it. I really liked it. It had me on the edge of my seat and character development was just enough for me to care about the only 2 people that mattered in the movie.

I don't wanna ruin it but it's nice to see a movie that doesn't jump to a predictable independence day style ending. "OMG lets use our macbook to save the universe!"

as far as the 9-11 thing, I don't see it. Buildings dont fall down differently due to the date on the calendar. Theres no political statement in this movie, and the people looking for one need to pull their heads out of their asses

m0rpheus

I haven't seen it yet so I can't judge. However I have had several friends go to see it and based on their responses I'm in no hurry.
Two of them thought it was absolute garbage, however I don't always trust their taste in movies. Two more thought it wasn't very good. I do trust their taste in movies. A final pair, who have almost identical taste in movies as me, told me it was just okay. Not bad but certainly not great either. If I get six responses and the best I get is indifferent then it doesn't really make me want to see it in theatres. I'll wait for the dvd.

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mixedmedia

Well, there's not much chance of cave explorers running into a gaggle of forgotten cannibalistic humanoids, either, but The Descent certainly made an impact on me. *shiver*

see, I didn't buy any of that...

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Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce

Hain

Spoiler: Hmmm people explode eh... I might see this after all.

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mixedmedia

Spoiler: Well, one does. But you don't actually see it.

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Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce

Hain

Spoiler: Damnit. [This is filler to make my spoiler looks like it means something.]

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Redlemon

I enjoyed it, didn't mind spending matinee pricing for it. That was the one part of the movie that vioalted my suspension of disbelief. Also, I didn't really care about the characters.

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Cynthetiq

yeah i didn't care about them at all, not any more than I do in any Godzilla movie. The movie really isn't about their character development, but about the monster and the monster wreaking havoc and mayem about the city.

That's why the blonde girl passed out on the sofa's backstory is on viral video, who gives a crap as to why she's passed out on the sofa and currently Rob's g/f. It's not mentioned at all in the movie.

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Willravel

Did people really go to this movie with expectations of reasonable circumstances?

I CARED ABOUT HUD!

pmb145

I really just didn't care for the movie and had no interest in any of the characters. It was never concerned or entertained. But I can honestly say it was what I expected...

Everyone leaving the theater acted furious. I dind't understand that.

jewels

I enjoyed it. Unlike many others I've spoken with about it, I was glad it wasn't a classic sci-fi monster movie. That's been so overdone that this was refreshing.

The 9/11 correlation I could see, one of the early scenes definitely brought a flash on 9/11, but it's quickly replaced by another scene in the movie. The camera work was what you'd expect if you've ever watched anyone's home movies. I was petrified after all the talk about it but it didn't bother me in the least.

I cared about the characters we were supposed to care about. This is one of the few times where character development could not be or feel scripted. Based on the premise of the home video camera's unedited flow, I thought the writers did a top-notch job.

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Manic_Skafe

What could've been some of the best visuals in the movie were ruined because they relied far too much on the handycam. Granted, the movie is supposed to allow us to see the attack from their perspective but all of the parts in which I should have felt tension, suspense, fear and compassion for the characters were ruined mostly because I was too busy wondering what the hell I was seeing.

That whole scene in the tunnel could've been so much better.

The medium is supposed to allow the message to flow through it. In the case of Cloverfield - it crippled it.

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Shauk

I dunno, I thought it gave a more "real" feel to it, which I think was the point. No one gives a crap about a professionally shot Godzilla movie. Spoiler: The scene where the soldiers came out of nowhere in the street and started opening fire on the monster was "immersive" realism I thought. It would have been far less impressive from a professionally shot standpoint. It just gave you a real "holy shit, we're civillians and these guys have guns! feeling that wouldn't have been conveyed otherwise.

Esoteric

It's really been 7 years since the 9/11 attacks? Man time flies...

I thought the movie was pretty good. Nowhere near as good as the hype surrounding it though.

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Lubeboy

I thought it was awesome. I had no problem with the handy cam. It was shot better than transformers. That's all I have to say.

Prophecy

My main issue with the movie was the ending. I left feeling like, that's it? It's over... damn, that was a waste of time. Now that said, I did enjoy everything else in the film up to the ending. It's just that the ending left a sour taste in my mouth that negates the rest of the movie. Not sure how I can explain it better than that.

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Strange Famous

The problem I had is it gave me motion sickness.

A lot of it didnt make sense, but its a B Movie, I can deal with that. I thought it was a clever take on an old genre, it was just the fact it made me sick that I had held against it.

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levite

Yeah, I thought it was a fun little piece of fluff. I don't know what everyone's problem is. It's a monster movie where the big giant monster attacks New York. Was anyone under the impression that would not result in buildings falling and people dying? To me, that's like going to see Pearl Harbor and getting upset because the Japanese unfairly surprised the Americans.

In any case, I thought the shakycam was an innovative and interesting touch, and the narrative's POV was entertaining. Also, Jessica Lucas (she played Lily) rocks my world! I think she is just ungodly hot! I thought an hour and a half of looking at her was worth most of the ticket price, anyway....

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miko

I thought it was great. I was so tense the entire movie.
I knew going in though that it wouldn't be a good idea to sit too close so i sat in the back third of the theater. The only thing that bothered me about the handycam was that at key moments you really wanted to see something that you felt was important but you couldn't because the camera was pointed at the ground or something! But that's really the whole point. We've see handycam work in movies before, but what was great about this movie was the fact that we only saw exactly what the govt saw which was just what was on that tape, and not a single thing more. That's pretty cool.

kofspades

For those people that said it's unlike anything they've ever saw; the Blair Witch Project is only 9 years old. While I was watching Cloverfield, I kept thinking one of the characters were going to yell "I threw the map in the fucking river! The damn thing is useless!".

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Willravel

The difference is that Blair was poorly executed. While I appreciate that they spent less making Blair than I might spend, say, at a drug store, it clearly shows on film. Cloverfield didn't suffer from poor writing, poor acting, and poor directing.