Cloverfield

I remember the first trailer coming out in the theater. No title. Just an ominous date.

I immediately pegged it as a Godzilla remake/clone, and mentally tagged it as a ‘must see’. And, when word of the shaky camera work got out, that changed to a “must wait till DVD”. In the meantime, I have avoided all comments and reviews of the thing. Just knew it was filmed with a handheld camera, and that is all.

So, it was a very rare moment when I put Alec to bed, had Kyle ‘sneak upstairs’ (Alec does not do well with scary movies), and we set down to watch this thing this weekend. No predisposed knowledge or opinions on it. No searching it for inspiration, just sitting back and enjoying.

Spoilers ahoy!

It was 9:30ish when we started watching. About 10:00ish, both Kyle and I were nearly asleep on the couch when blissfully the action started. Earthquake, power flicker, run to the roof, see the fireball in the distance. Hey, finally got to the trailer!

Run down to the street, and there comes the head of the Statue of Liberty, where the trailer part ends. Oh, we’re into it now. A little while later, they start crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. I look over at Kyle:

“Oh, that bridge is going DOWN.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll bet you, that bridge is going to be attacked.”

“Why?”

They walk around and pause, and it’s all normal just long enough for him to say

“See, it’s not crashing.”

BANG goes the…err, whatever it is. Crushing one of the characters and suddenly they’re running back off the bridge.

Now there is panic in the streets, and a scene with the camera running I couldn’t watch even on the small screen. Glad we didn’t go to the theaters.

It was the scene here that it finally clicked in my head. They show the thing from the news copters, and little doodads are falling off it and attacking people. Wait a minute…I’ve SEEN THIS BEFORE!!!

The movie was most enjoyable, really. Shaky camera aside, that is. It’s a rare one where they know when NOT to show you something, and leave you with questions unanswered.

What was it? What happens to people who are bitten? Did they kill it?

The whole handheld camera thing wasn’t so bad. Only twice did I have to stop watching or get sick. Still, it was mostly unneeded. I do want to know where the hell I can get one of those cameras though. The battery lasts forever, it’s got lights, night vision, and takes one hell of a beating, not to mention that SD card sure held a good chunk of video…How much one of those go for, you think?

As the movie ends, abruptly, Kyle sat there wide-eyed. Yeah, he’s not sleeping…So, I had to break out and show him where the movie seems to have come from. As I said, seen it before. Happens to be a Playstation 2 GAME.

Final Fantasy X:
Opens in a nice crowded city, a sports arena. You see these fireballs coming and hit the building, and you run down to the street.

Cloverfield:
NYC. Fireballs come, striking the buildings, making it not safe, they run to the street.

Final Fantasy X:
Getting to the street, we’re presented with an ominous face of a broken statue.

Cloverfield:
Statue of Liberty’s head comes screeching to a hault right in front of the camera.

Final Fantasy X: running across a crowded bridge, it’s suddenly attacked.

Cloverfield: Calmly walking across the bridge, it’s suddenly attacked, killing one of the ‘main’ characters up to that point.

Final Fantasy X: Little scale shaped things break off big bad monster, open up to look remarkably similar to the cloverfield things (but have wings) and start attacking.

Cloverfield: Little things that look like the bugs from Starship Troopers fall off the big bad monster and start attacking.

Coincidence? Possibly, I suppose. Or is it just so cliche a storyline at this point? Also possible.

It’s a little 5-10 minute opening segment of the Final Fantasy game. But the resemblence was striking once it ‘clicked’. Does make for a good movie when all dramatized and following a couple of people try to survive it for 90 minutes, I’ll admit.

Explaining the resemblence put Kyle at ease, at any rate.

Good show, gets alot right. Let’s hope they do some better camerawork (less bouncing around, please?) for the sequel.