There wasn't a bunch of gratuitous violence. What made this movie great was that it didn't capitalize on anything, because it was realistic. This isn't so much a film as an experience. Who hasn't been curious about what a monster attack would really be like?
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On a side note, I think the rifftrax for Cloverfield will be a disaster. As a riffer, I'm just not seeing it working; not because I think it's perfect, but because I just don't think it's a film that lends itself to riffing. I could be wrong, but I'll be very impressed if te rifftrax is any good at all.
A movie that shows what would happen in a monster attack would be interesting, however, Cloverfield fails MAJORLY to do this.
First, how realistic is it for them to just turn around and head back into the city to save the girl? To climb in an obviously structually destroyed building, leap building to building to find the girl. Especially after her voicemail that basically sounded like she was dead. When they find her, she has concret rebarb sticking out of her chest, but they pull her off it, WALK her out, and later on, she's running with the rest of them, instead of bleeding out, lungs fillign with blood and drowning. They are walking in a subway tunnel and Hud says, "You know what would be scarey..." Yeah, I do know, a monster attacking your city! The army in charge of evacuating the city, JUST LETS THEM GO!
This was an excellent idea for a movie that would have been terrifying if they had a decent storyline and characters. Instead you have one dimensional characters, and a dumb plot, right out of any other hollywood blockbuster. The movie got attention and buzz because it traded on 9/11 imaginery. It used the horror and tragedy of 9/11 to lift up it's ridiculous plot and piss poor storytelling.
This movie is SO appropriate for riffing. I walked into that movie going, "this is going to be great", and halfway through it I went, "not only do I not like this movie, I HATE it". The only way I'd even consider watching this piece of banal dreck again would be with the rifftrax.