Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Blog

Cloverfield.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 1 comments link this post

Sometimes I stumble into weird things. After seeing the movie Cloverfield (you know I love monster movies), I wanted to know if the monster came from the sea or from space. That's it. I didn't really care to know what happened to the characters or what happened next; I just wanted to know where it came from.

In the process of searching, I realized that there is a whole fictitious clamor around the film. I, never having seen the TV show Lost, understand that its creator J. J. Abrams (who produced Cloverfield) tends to build up these kinds of modern myths that wrap people up in the game of trying to figure out what he provides clues for. The closest I've come to being weirdly obsessed with something like that would be the game Myst, almost ten years ago. I was a fan of Abrams' Alias show for a few seasons until it just got really dumb and uninteresting.

As it is, with the ease of putting up web sites on the internet that seem legitimate, there are fake corportations, fake missing persons...unbelievable. Viral and creative marketing at its best.

In a time-wasting way, it's interesting. But I don't have the time to waste, nor the extra energy to expend. And, nothing serves as a reminder to get a grip like visiting a forum where people are freaking out and "screaming" at each other over incorrect "facts" for something that isn't real, like Cloverfield. There is a serious amount of devotion to this new story that has sucked people in. Odd.

You know -- it's an interesting movie. Pretty good as far as monster movies go. But I'm not going to do more than a simple Google search to find out where the monster came from. I certainly have no plans on writing a thesis on the story, or taking the inevitable college class that, in a few years, will pop on some campus discussing the film and what it means to society.

Joseph Campbell was right: myths are powerful. And, I might add, distracting.

Pretty good movie, though. Interesting concepts, camera work (hand-held camera feel), special effects. I liked it. Not enough to devote my free time or life to it, however.

Here's the (now old) trailer for kicks and giggles.

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Labels: movies, video

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1 Comments:

I liked Cloverfield, too. My husband did not. He did not like the video camera mode and that seemed to ruin the whole movie for him.

Movies like this one make me wonder if I'd go into battle to rescue someone I may or may not still love. Yes, I'm getting deep here. And I usually decide...if that person really loved ME, he wouldn't be off doing something silly when the world is falling apart so I wouldn't have a need to save him in the first place.

By Anna, at 30/4/08 18:27