Got to See Cloverfield!
Pop Culture, PC(USA), Church Stuff, Film
Before I get to Cloverfield, I just want to mention that today has been a pretty good day so far–and it’s only 3:00 p.m.! This was my first Sunday back at church after a week of vacation and a week of study leave, and I was honestly really glad to be back. We had one combined service today (which was nice for me) followed by our annual Congregational Meeting.
This was my first time moderating a congregational meeting–and I think it showed! I had a lot of help from people in the congregation (the long-time members) reminding me of some of the things that had to happen–like declaring a quorum, appointing a clerk, etc. But it was all in all a good meeting. We talked a bit about our Appreciative Inquiry process (which we’re calling Positive Storytelling), and after opening up the floor for questions a lot of folks who have already done the AI interviews shared what a great experience it was! I was really excited to hear them share that!
After the meeting, I got a compliment from someone (although I’m not 100% sure it was intended as a compliment). A lady said to me, “I think that was the least Presbyterian congregational meeting I’ve ever been to.” I smiled and said, “Well, to someone like me, that’s not really a bad thing…”
So, I left feeling pretty good about the morning. Robin took the kids to see her brother and parents this morning, so I have the afternoon off. I headed to Panera to do some reading for class and suddenly realized, “Hey, I could go see a movie!” (something parents of young children rarely have the opportunity to do…)
So I popped into the theater just in time to see the 12:45 showing of Cloverfield.
It was a pretty fun movie, though rather simplistic. I can see the filmmakers working on the idea: “What if we make a giant-monster -destroys-the-city movie, but told it from the perspective of someone actually experiencing it with a video camera?”
The movie used every familiar giant monster sci-fi movie convention we know. In a sense, in order to understand this movie a person has to understand the conventions of 20th century sci-fi monster flicks. The only way to understand what was going on in this movie was to know what happens when a giant reptilian alien attacks New York city: it destroys buildings (a la King Kong, Godzilla, and one of my favorite 1980’s video games, Rampage). And how does this giant creature take control? Its offspring lays eggs inside human beings to multiply.
But this is never explained in the movie. One of the characters is bit by one of the spiderlike offspring of the giant creature and a few minutes later she explodes (all we see is the silhouette inside a tent). We’re never told what happens (we don’t even see the alien come out), but we all know that the alien spiders laid parasite eggs inside her that grew into full-grown alien spiders whose only way of escaping their host was to burst out of her abdomen (think John Hurt in Alien; here’s a picture).
Everything in the movie is predictable. But I think that’s kind of the point. The movie is essentially an experiment in telling a story that everyone already knows, but from one average Joe’s perspective.
And the movie ends without any answers. What was that creature? Was it from outer space? From 20,000 leagues under the sea? What happened to New York? Did they kill the creature? Did they save the city? The point is, the answers to those questions don’t really matter. We all know how the story ends because we’ve already seen it a hundred times.
Anyway, while it wasn’t the greatest movie I’ve ever seen, it was a pretty fun movie. And I’m just happy I got to see a movie in the theater for a change!
20 Jan 2008 markus
Markus Watson
I thought the movie was the best monster movie I have ever seen. I thought the movie was a bit of a downer at the end. Philosophically it reminded me of cinema from several decades ago, pre-Star Wars, where everything ended on a down note. The lack of hope is what makes this a poor story in my opinion. A good story needs a hopeful ending.
Also I am facinated by the analysis that some people have applied to the movie. Historically most monster movies have been representations of the arogance of man in attacking Gaia and Gaia attacking back, but this movie seemed to be more of an aliens / zombie movie. These movies have historically been symbolic of the forces of communism attacking the western way of life. In this movie several have pointed out that it looks like the Monster attacks the statue of liberty, brings down different buildings in Manhattan, and terrorizes the youth. They draw the conclusion that the movie is a metaphore for our current “war on terror”. I would be saddened if this was the filmmakers intent, but the analysis is interesting in that it might provide a window into the mind of those who see those connections without having it pointed out.
Pretty interesting, Ted. I hadn’t thought of the Gaia theme in these movies, but I can totally see it. I think there were definitely some 9/11 references in the movie (primarily the way the building collapses followed by the cloud of debris–very reminiscent of 9/11). But I don’t think that’s what the filmmakers were getting at.
I still think that the movie was basically an experiment (stolen from Blair Witch Project, of course) in telling a monster movie story from an average person’s perspective. Not a military person’s perspective, not a scientist’s perspective–just an average person who has absolutely no power to do anything about what’s going on, other than to draw close to someone he loves. He also has no ability to see what those in power are doing. For this person, none of it makes sense and no answers are ever given.
And I think the reason the experiment succeeds is, as I mentioned in my post, we all know the story already. We’ve all seen how the story ends. In our minds, we all know where the creature comes from. We all know what the little spiders are doing. The audience is able to fill in the blanks because they already know the story.
So, the question remains… should I spend my hard-earned moolah on this flick? Or wait till the DVD comes out?
Honestly, I think it’s ok to wait for it on DVD.