I survived Cloverfield.... without vomiting!!!

Originally published at www.mydestroyer.com. You can comment there.

So, yeah. I was super amped to see Cloverfield since the very first teaser trailer way back in the day. I can't remember what movie it was in front of, but you know the one. The movie's title wasn't even revealed at the end of the damn teaser. All they showed was the Bad Robot ident at the beginning. I immediately looked up the trailer and discovered it was the new JJ Abrams project, code named "Cloverfield". I fell in love with the ilovebees-esque viral marketing, and could not wait for January 18th 2008. I kinda expected them to rename the movie, but Cloverfield stuck.

Now, I knew the movie was going to be shot via handheld camera, to give it that visceral, cinema verite feel. This would not bode well for me, as I do get a bit of motion sickness when watching really shakey videos. After seeing the Blair Witch project, I figured, okay, I can handle this. I've seen plenty of poorly shot family home videos, and I can last pretty long without getting sick. I did survive, without getting fully sick, but man, by the end of the movie, my head was spinning more than the camera! And all I kept thinking was, just fucking ZOOM OUT, and the video wouldn't be so wobbly! Damn. I could've shot the the damn thing smootherly.

I know, I know, the dude with the camera was totally freaking out, I mean, there was some life threatening monsters attacking the city, so yeah, I guess I should be a little more lenient with the critiques of his filming techniques. But here's an idea. when you're life is in danger, how's about putting the camera down and running for your fucking life? No?

Anyway, having extremely high, HIGH hopes for Cloverfield, it was sure to be a let down. But I actually work differently than most people. When I have big expectations for a film/music/game, and it comes up short, I'm not disappointed. This is why: Whatever that got my excited about the particular piece of art/entertainment in the first place would most likely be a snippet of a scene shown in a trailer. So, as long as that little 10 second clip in in the movie, and perhaps a few more clips just like it, I'll be happy with the movie. Even if the rest of the flick sucks balls, as long as I saw that statue of liberty head fall from the sky, and a few more scenes of equal carnage, than I'll leave the theatre a happy man.

So, I left Cloverfield quite happy, and a little sick. Of course, once the giddiness of seeing NYC destroyed by a monster had died down, yes, the films flaws presented themselves. But who cares. NYC was just destroyed by a monster!!!

ADC