J.J. Abrams's Upcoming film- Giant Monster flick

[Jeff]

Anybody that went to see Transformers should've seen a very interesting trailer. If you haven't, or you forgot, it starts out at a party for some guy leaving town. It's being recorded by a usual home video camera (which the entire film apparently will be shot with), and during the party there's a tremor and the lights go out. A bunch of people go on the roof and after a moment there's a massive explosion in downtown New York followed by a creepy roar. Everybody runs inside as debris is flying and the camera goes wonky. Soon, a bunch of them run outside where the street is mobbed by residents trying to escape. After a moment you hear the same roar followed by seeing the Statue of Liberty's head fly into a building and roll down the street.

I was quite intrigued by it when I saw it last night, even when I didn't realize it was a giant monster movie. It was especially funny when the whole crowd booed at the end because it never said what was the name of the film. It's being code-named as "Cloverfield" and written, produced and directed by most people who worked on Lost and Alias.

You can go here to read more about it and watch the trailer-

J.J. Abrams Top Secret Trailer for Cloverfield in Front of Transformers!! « FirstShowing.net

Seriously, you can't expect me to not be excited by this.

[Bingo675]

Um...okay...it looks kinda weird. And I think that giant monsters destroying a city has been done before.

[Jeff]

Well, no sh-t. Though, I'm pretty sure this is the first with a Blair Witch-esque point of view.

Giant monster movies are rarely innovative, but that's not the glory of them.

[Bingo675]

If I'm gonna pay to go in, I better see something more innovative than a different filming style, and something more original than..."Oh my God...it's an animal that fell into toxic waste and then was irradiated and grew giant somehow!!"

[vacumgod]

Sure, giant monster movies aren't original any more, but at the same token, all giant monster movie (sans Jackson's king kong) have been more cheesy and poorly made than string cheese itself.
If this movie only uses a small digital camcorder for the whole filming process, then all large creature shots are probably out of the question. Which does add a certain level of interest, a traditional giant monster film with none of the traditional shots.

[Jeff]

Originally posted vacumgod
Sure, giant monster movies aren't original any more, but at the same token, all giant monster movie (sans Jackson's king kong) have been more cheesy and poorly made than string cheese itself.

Not quite. Gojira, Godzilla Returns, Godzilla vs. Biollante and the 90s Gamera trilogy are all monster movies that were very well-made for their time and actually took themselves seriously. I would readily recommend those to to anyone who isn't even overly fond of giant monster films.

And for anime-junkies, Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, GMK, and Tokyo S.O.S would be excellent choices. Better yet, go watch THEM! That still remains to be one of the best creature-features yet.

[TeenSpirit]

Originally Posted by Mirren

Not quite. Gojira, Godzilla Returns, Godzilla vs. Biollante and the 90s Gamera trilogy are all monster movies that were very well-made for their time and actually took themselves seriously. I would readily recommend those to to anyone who isn't even overly fond of giant monster films.

And for anime-junkies, Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, GMK, and Tokyo S.O.S would be excellent choices. Better yet, go watch THEM! That still remains to be one of the best creature-features yet.

I'll have to disagree with you on Godzilla Returns (it was freaking BORING), I do personally consider Gojira to be proof that even a monster movie can have deeper meaning. I actually almost cryed at the end of it the first time I saw it (hey, I was 10, OK?), and I still think it was very emotional in parts... Or maybe I'm just soft. :embrsd:

[Leinator]

Every single plot of any story, movie, book, or television, has been 'done before.' It's simply a matter of making it in an innovative way. The 'underdog vs. giant empire of evil' has been done over since the beginning of written language, and yet star wars seemed to pull it off. I'd suggest not just writing off a movie just because of it's genre, bingo.

Anyway, yeah, it does look pretty cool. I wouldn't be nearly excited if it was anyone other than JJ Abrams. I was a huge Alias fan, I can't wait to see how he does this.

[rasp]

I can't wait to see this.

[Hyperbadox]

I haven't ever seen a monster movie before, but this looks like something I would definitely go see in theatres.

[A_H]

Man, I was hoping someone had created a thread about this already. I have to admit, that although Transformers was the highlight of that evening, this trailer left quite an impression on me. I had no idea it could be found on the web, I'm so glad you posted that link.
Has anyone checked out the promotional websites for this movie?

1-18-08

and

SLUSHO!

If you go to the Slusho.jp website, you can read the history of the drink. I think its a major clue as to what the monster can be. In the trailer, the moan sounds like a whale, while one man shouts (in the street sequence) that he saw "it" and that it looked like a "huge"..."lion".

A few days ago, some folks said the ethan haas website ( Ethan Haas Was Right - Look to the stars for help )
was related to the movie. I looked into it and although I cannot view the ethan hass website, I've been told it has some H.P. Lovecraft puzzles which leads me to believe that the giant monster of this movie could possibly be inspired by (if not the) Cthulhu.

But more recently, Harry Knowles of Aint it Cool News recieved an e-mail from J.J. Abrams stating that the Haas websites have nothing to do with the movie. Now I don't know how true that is, but if so, my over active imagination made some crazy connection between the Haas website and the movie.

Anywho, that's all I have.

[edit] Um yeah, I went a little overboard with the H.P. Lovecraft stuff and the EthanHaaswasright website. It is not related to the movie.

But the other two I provided are. So everyone interested, do some sluething! There are probably other sites out there.

[Tazryl]

Yea i saw the trailer, at first I thought it was Transformers. I was late getting into the theater so I had missed a few of the trailers. Which was kinda sad because I often enjoy watching trailers before movies.

When the trailer was over I couldn't figure out what movie it was for. but it did look awsome.

[A_H]

Is it me obsessing too much over this or is there an image of a devil-like creature in between the two girls in the photo on 1-18-08?

[Laila]

My brother just showed me the trailer for this movie last night. Please go check out his blog about it!!!

Here

[A_H]

Originally Posted by Laila

My brother just showed me the trailer for this movie last night. Please go check out his blog about it!!!

Here

So this blog is your brothers? I've been following it for a few days now (well...since you posted it here) and I thought I had posted a thank you, but maybe it got deleted somehow. Anyway, thanks Laila for providing me the link to his blog. I've been speculating so much with all this new information that leaks, but I'm beginning to wonder whether or not I should quit looking into it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm curious as all hell, but at the same time, I don't want to spoil anything for myself. I think a time is drawing near where I am going to cut myself off and avert my eyes from anything else that could be related to Cloverfield/Slusho/Monstrous/Overnight.

I did the same with Transformers and the rewards were great. I had no clue what to expect when I watched the movie, and so, I think it is time I do the same for this one. But yeah, I just wanted to thank you for posting the link to that blog. It gave me some nice little tidbits to mull over for the next few months till the movie is released.

[Laila]

Of course it's no problem at all. I just hope everyone doesn't get hyped up on this movie and it ends up being stupid. But I guess we'll see eh?