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What’s that coming over the hill, is it a monster? (Cloverfield thoughts)

Sunday, November 23rd, 2008

It sure is, Bob- one heck of a monster.

Sorry to be so abstract, but these are just some thoughts of mine on Cloverfield.  For some reason I hadn’t gone to the cinema to see this, it happens.  I don’t neccessarily go to see every film out there, although I admit I do try.  Heck- even though I know it’s supposed to be decent, I haven’t even seen Quantum of Solace yet!

Anyhow, when walking around HMV one fine day (it was probably raining to be honest), I felt compelled to pick up Cloverfield on DVD and buy it.  I’d heard mixed reviews: some thought it was the second coming, whereas others thought it was generic and sub-par.  I thought I’d give it a go anyway.

To be quite honest I was initially totally shocked with the opening.  It felt suffocating, being restricted to one solitary camera- a shaky one at that (hand-held camcorder).  I was also thinking ‘this sucks’ right from the beginning, and right the way through the party- watching and listening to some kind of mindless drivel from all of the guests and especially the guy holding the camcorder.  What a tool.

Yes, very boring right up until the point where… something happens.  From this point onwards in the film, and right until the bitter end- the whole camcorder perspective makes perfect sense.  There’s a point in the film which reminds me of some of the finest moments of Halo and Starship Troopers.  With a first-person viewpoint you are totally immersed in the film, and the film as a whole benefits enormously for it.

Again, I’m not going to go into too much detail here with regards to spoilers, but there’s a scene near the end that could have been done so much better.  I’ve seen more emotive stuff like this on a Stargate SG-1 episode called ‘Heroes‘.

So, to kind-of conclude: Cloverfield is on the whole, and excellent film, but be prepared for a totally different viewpoint.  I’m always interested in different cinematic styles and experiences (I found the film ‘Hero’ to be particularly good) but there absolutely must be a great story to back it up.  And Cloverfield has just that, the story of a group of ordinary people trying to survive the carnage of a monster in New york City.  Epic.

Anyone reading this seen Cloverfield?  Thoughs?  Agree?  Disagree?  Agree to disagree? Beg to differ?

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Joe Flanigan should play Nathan Drake

Sunday, October 5th, 2008

This is my response to the news that Avi Arad will be producing an Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune film.

Immediately after playing Uncharted for the first time, I had always thought that Nathan Drake more or less looked like, and sounded exactly like Joe Flanigan.  It looks like I’m not the only one who thinks this.  Joe Flanigan is perhaps best known (in my mind anyway) for his portrayal of Lt. Colonel John Sheppard on Stargate Atlantis.  I was initially going to provide side-by-side comparisons of them, but why bother?  If you ‘Google’ both names, you’ll soon see the similarity.  Also, if you hop on to YouTube, there might some clips of them both ‘in action’ so to speak.

Even if you’ve never played Uncharted or never watched Stargate Atlantis, then this is still relevant to you.  Whilst many videogame-to-film translations haven’t gone particularly well, this one should be a fantastic film.  Why?  Well Uncharted happens to have a particularly strong plot with plenty of twists and turns.  You could call it Tomb Raider-esque, but with way more substance.  The truly crucial factor though, is that the writers don’t deviate too far from the source material.  The source material is already gold.

If anyone knows what I’m on about, then please let me know what you think.  I’d love to have a chat about this!

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My films ’08/’09 update

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008

(This was just going to cover 2008 as a followup post, but then I realised Watchmen would not be releasing till 2009.  Oops)

Let’s start with my previous list:

The Happening
I just didn’t bother with this one.  Nothing much to say really!

Wanted
Really cool film.  Plenty of action and a reasonable twist towards the end.

Hancock
I didn’t have time to see this one, thought it’s on my wish list for getting it on DVD.

The Dark Knight
This was worth the wait and then some.  Possibly a bit too long, but dripping with amazingness(?!)

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Like ‘The Happening’, I just didn’t bother.  That, and most critics panned it.  Might get round to seeing it eventually though.

More films I want to see this year:

Quantum of Solace
Out: 31/10/2008
Anticipation factor: 5/5
Comment: I’m really looking forward to this one.  This new style is Bond how it should be.

Watchmen
Out: 06/03/2009
Anticipation factor: 3.5/5
Comment: I really don’t know what to expect from this film, but I’m intrigued by it.  Not your average superhero film, that’s for sure.

Ok, so this post turned out poorer than I could possibly have imagined.  But an update is an update I suppose.  Till next time!

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