Cloverfield

A review by Mark F.

++ WARNING THIS POST WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS! ++

You have been warned...

Basic opinion - best original movie to come out in a long while. Although it covers a pretty old genre of film they did a great job of creating a 'realism' to the film. When I say original - I mean a movie that kept many of the viewers active in trying to figure out what was going on (viral promotions) and somehow was able to keep many things a mystery.

I've heard rumors of them possibly doing sequels from different perspectives in the city when the monster attacks, but I believe it to be a better stand-alone film. Giving it mystery adds to the entire effect of the movie. I'm pretty sure it was hard for anyone to catch everything the first time they watched the film. I've already seen it twice and was tempted to watch it a third.

Major things I noticed in the film and had questions about.
1) In the beginning the Do Not Duplicate screen shows the numbers 36-12-18. Do you think this is significant to anything? I believe it could be the current date of the person watching the film, December 18, 2036?

2) When it knocked down the bridge you get two opportunities to see it do it. Once at the time of the attack and second when they are inside the electronic store and see it on the news. What part of it's body was it - it looked like a tentacle?

3) Some of my friends didn't realize that the film would go back and forth between the month April (the happy footage between Rob and Beth) and May (the footage of the attack).

4) The monster's origin was never truly answered but in the ending scene on the beach - if you watch the right side of the screen in the ocean near the boat. You will see a meteor like object crash into the water. Meaning I will go with Hud's idea of 'Superman'. Some of my friends still believe it's an underwater creature that came from the seas, due to the hype and ideas originally posted by the viral promotions.

5) After the credits and the awesome playlist for the party scene, there is a sound byte of static where the audio (in my opinion) says, "Help Us". Not really sure how that is going to apply to the next project for Bad Robot.

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Also, I have been running a promotion company for regional/national touring bands in my area for close to a year now. I finally got someone in the local newspaper to start doing write ups for me. You should read her blog here. She wrote a review for that band The New Frontiers full length due out in February and currently out online on Amazon/Itunes. Anyways they have peaked at the #4 spot of most downloaded albums on Amazon.com this week behind the Juno Soundtrack and Radiohead.