Just saw this pretty amazing movie. One thing that struck me was that nowhere did you hear the various imperiled 20-somethings or soldiers say anything like, "My God, it's like godzilla or something!", or even call it a giant monster. It seems to me that is something that would come automatically to mind to people in our world. So, is Cloverfield in an alternate world in which "giant monsters" simply are not present in pop culture? Discuss.
Cloverfield
- Thread starter zoomar
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I'm sure the reason they didn't mention Godzilla was because of copyright issues.
NapoleonXIV
Banned
Do they know it's a giant monster?
Also, breaks the "fourth wall" You can do this and sometimes it's very helpful as it gives your audience a whole shorthand of what the monster is, how the movie will unfold etc, etc. Problem is the whole thing here is supposedly what the hell is going on, so yeh, maybe this is a godzilla-less parallel universe though right there now we have even more to accept.
I dunno, the whole Blair Witch Meets Godzilla thing doesn't seem like it would work to me. Now the thrown head is one idea, like how do the people in the buildings feel? but that's explored in all the GZ movies. The main thing is to watch the monster destroy stuff and you can't do that all that well from the standpoint of the thing being destroyed.
Also, breaks the "fourth wall" You can do this and sometimes it's very helpful as it gives your audience a whole shorthand of what the monster is, how the movie will unfold etc, etc. Problem is the whole thing here is supposedly what the hell is going on, so yeh, maybe this is a godzilla-less parallel universe though right there now we have even more to accept.
I dunno, the whole Blair Witch Meets Godzilla thing doesn't seem like it would work to me. Now the thrown head is one idea, like how do the people in the buildings feel? but that's explored in all the GZ movies. The main thing is to watch the monster destroy stuff and you can't do that all that well from the standpoint of the thing being destroyed.
in response to the why can't you recognize it as godzilla inside of the movie thing is because that's always been the tradition of the horror movie in general. As a fan of numerous zombie movies and books, i have yet to come across an instance where the characters say to themselves, "oh yeah, these things act like zombies, let's shoot 'em in the head!" So no one in this movie will ever say that its like godzilla, let's direct it towards the power plant.
Apparently not. They see the giant monster clear as a bell early on and the newcasts they see on TV's in various places also show it. They know the thing is a monster pretty soon - besides in our world even if they don't know its a monster they'd make some sort of cracks about it.
I hadn't thought about the copyright issues...but something like "My God, I'ts like a damn Japaneses monster movie" would have been good.
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Good point, and one I thought about as well. I think the difference lies in how this movie was made. The central conceit is that it is not a piece of fiction but at "real" record made by real people with a camera..and the failure to have the characters refer to the thing as even a "giant monster" hurts that realism.
NapoleonXIV
Banned
No. I''m saying why I prolly won't
Does it have lots of gruesome crushings and eatings? I might go if it has lots of bloody and horrible death.
No it doesn't, they keep saying to each other "What is that thing?" and then when they're in the M.A.S.H. unit, they ask the military personel the same question.
The scene in the Subway tunnel, Hud explains that it could have flown here from another planet, like and alien and Marlena responds with "Like Superman?"
The director was trying to invoke the feel of a major distaster, so by them saying, it's a giant monster, it's like a Godzilla movie, etc. That would be like people in the middle of a tornado saying "It's like Twister out here!"
Eladrimstar
Banned
A woman explodes...and if you are scared by sudden appearances of frightening things, when you here the words, "Turn on the night vision"...CLOSE YOUR EYES!
NapoleonXIV
Banned
I saw the woman exploding on youtube. I'd want my money back, it was behind a screen and looked like two guys were dragging her off, no more.
I was really hoping what with the CGI and all we'd finally get a mega gross out Godzilla for once, something like where he gets his foot stuck in all the sticky after he steps on an elementary school or something.
The movie is really about as gruesome as the 9/11 footage you saw on CNN. In other words, not very, but you can be pretty damn sure thousands of people are dying horribly.
Yes, it was rather nice to see the US military wasn't using any dumbass plans to kill the monster, but was just trying adapt normal battlefield tactics to an wholly unpredictable environment.I throughly enjoyed the movie. The monster features an orginal design, and the US Army is actually comptenment in the movie. THEY HIT THE MONSTER
By the way, did anyone see any tanks rolling around Manhattan? I saw some mobile artillery and what may have been an APC, but no Abrahmses. Of course, given the current worldwide deployment of American forces, the (un)availability of airlift capacity, and the damage done to the bridges and tunnels into the city, it may be that there were simply no tanks to send and no way to deliver them.
I saw it earlier today. Not a bad movie. I do wonder how the military got there so fast with heavy ground equipment, though. troops carrying various weapons I can understand, but Abrams tanks in the middle of Manhattan? Did the government suspect something before the attack and positioned things ahead of time? I am not sure if the "parasites" were actually "parasites" and not some younger larval version of the life form. There are lots of life forms on our planet where the young don't look like the adult form. If you watch the footage of Hud when he is killed, the creature appears to have a similar bite pattern to the "parasites". The parasites also remind me of the soldier bugs from Starship Troopers. The shakey cam didn't bother me a bit, though I did take some meclizine prior to going to the theatre. I agree with the assement that this isn't a monster movie, but more about people trying to survive a monster movie. Cloverfield=Godzilla+70's disaster movie.
Torqumada
Torqumada