Tracking The Early 'Cloverfield' Buzz: Giant Fucking Monsters Are Definitely Coming [Beast Wars]

Tracking The Early 'Cloverfield' Buzz: Giant Fucking Monsters Are Definitely Coming [Beast Wars]
At long last, Cloverfield, Slusho Beverage Corp.'s bold foray into the sci-fi disaster genre, had its first screenings last night. Hours later, members of the fanboy journalist elite lucky enough to have had first, unfettered access to the mysterious creature at the center of all the monument-decapitating mayhem, took to the internets. Below, a round-up of the buzz. [Ed. note: We'll try to avoid spoilers, but promise nothing. You've been warned.]
· If we are to believe the Kingdom of the Fanboys' semi-merciful Lord and Ruler Harry Knowles, it was a watershed moment in giant-ing- monster-stomping- through-Manhattan cinematic history: "The movie is ing brilliant. It's what we were told it was going to be. An intimate perspective on an impossibly grand scale human disaster beyond most human levels of comprehension." Slashfilm reminds us, however, that this was a guy who thought the Godzilla remake was peaches. [AICN, Slashfilm]

· "Cloverfield is a post-9.11 fever dream. As if a person who's been through 9.11 in lower Manhattan has gone to bed traumatized and shaking with dread, and this is the dream they have. Illogical, ferocious, madball, all-engulfing....but very much of our world. Not It Came From Beneath The Sea but It Came From Someplace Deep in the National Psyche." [hollywood-elsewhere.com]
We make no promises as to the authenticity of any of the following:
· Nicholas Chance, Kid Reviewer, when not solving backyard mysteries for his neighborhood friends, says he was also among the first to check out the movie, and even sketched to the best of his ability what the monster looked like. He was less impressed than Knowles: "Overall, I thought there was lots of excitement...I thought the movie was awesome as a roller coaster ride, especially as a fan of the marketing campaign since the day the trailer hit last July. However it wasn't quite the whole theme park. The characters were realistic, but rather normal. No outstanding performances, and the movie just didn't have the full-story feel of a classic five star release. In some scenes people were giggling, when the director may have meant for it to be serious." [kidreviewer.com]
· The Dint Factor blog first offers their credentials ("At 8pm EST at Michigan State University in the basement lecture hall B108 of Wells a prescreening was given for students and the public of MSU and East Lansing"), then launches into their own take: "It should be understood that Cloverfield IS NOT A MONSTER MOVIE. Well... It is a monster movie, but not in the traditional sense. It's a love story. It's a story about obsession...This is not Godzilla. There are no Matt Brodericks to tell you how it came to be, or how to beat it. There are no Jeff Goldblums to tell you to put a virus in the mothership. JJ Abrams has managed to make a movie that gives you no answers. What is it? A monster. Where'd it come from? Hell if I know." [The Dint Factor]
· OK, this one's a GIANT SPOILER, so DO NOT CLICK if you don't want to see what purports to be a detailed sketch of the monster, with the Statue of Liberty next to it for scale. [Dougbot.com]
· If you caught last night's premiere, send in your reports. We'll compile them later today.
Published 1/11/08 by


Defamer

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