January 1, 2018
My Favorite Movies and TV of 2017 (and What I’m Looking Forward to in 2018)
Best Films
Star Wars: The Last Jedi: The eighth episode in the Star Wars main cannon of films got mixed reviews with critics liking it more than fans, and fans being very split. Judging by reactions of fans on twitter, it was very passionate in either loving or hating the film. I would fall into the former group. It thought it was almost as good as The Force Awakens, and the story was more interesting overall. The aesthetics of The Force Awakens are what give it a slight edge in my opinion. Where TFA reintroduces us to Han and Leia, TLJ brings in Luke who is the main star of the movie. I feel certain that the director Rian Johnson must have been a huge fan as a kid. I can imagine him playing with a model of the Millennium Falcon containing all of his favorite characters escaping off into the galaxy from the imperial forces.
(As mentioned last year I also really enjoyed Rogue One, which is outside of the main cannon of films, but part of Disney’s expanded universe of Star Wars films. Rogue One surprised me because I found it to be better than most Star Wars films. It’s gritty, it’s dark and it takes you to places you’ve only heard about in the franchise.)
The Disaster Artist: James Franco and created a masterpiece in the telling of the creation of one of the worst movies ever filmed. Franco directs and stars in the film about The Room, a notorious indie film. Ironically The Disaster Artist gives
Logan: the last film to feature Hugh Jackman as Wolverine is also the very best film in the X-men series. It’s much darker, and more violent. Logan brings the director of the also excellent The Wolverine (the previous solo Wolverine film) back but this time with a license to make an R-rated film that reflects the true nature of the character. The story is one that is stripped down and raw, and much more emotional than anything else in the X-men franchise.
Get Out: Get Out is one of the most interesting horror films I’ve ever seen. Using horror as a story-telling mechanism, it examines modern race relations. It blends comedy with the horror that
Logan Lucky: imagine a country-version of Oceans Eleven — that would be Logan Lucky, which tells the hilarious story of two West Virginia brothers who make an attempt to rob the Charlotte Motor Speedway with the help of some friends.
Alien: Covenant: After Prometheus came out there were still a lot of unanswered questions about the origins of the Zenomorphs from the Alien film series. Although a lot of folks didn’t particularly love Prometheus I really enjoyed the film.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: One of the movies I was most looking forward to was the follow up to Guardians of the Galaxy (one of my favorite sci-fi films ever). The sequel just was underwhelming. It felt like the producers were really trying to play it safe, which is exactly the opposite of what made the original so great. Still I’m excited that we’re moving closer to a merging of the Guardians with the Avengers next year with Infinity War.
Blade Runner 2049: From the director of last year’s amazing Arrival, comes the sequel to Blade Runner which has to be my favorite film of the year, and maybe the decade. I just loved it. It’s vibrant and beautiful, and contains a deeply moving story, much more so that even the original. (I blogged about it here.) It bombed in the box office but maybe that’s just an indicator that it’s a film that appeals to the more thoughtful in our society.
Best TV
Stranger Things 2: the sequel season to Stranger Things (which was very intentionally created as a sequel to the first season) is pretty great if not quite as awesome as the original. Still very worth watching. I love it for the 80s nostalgia.
Mr Robot: I’ve only recently gotten into Mr Robot so I’m pretty behind. But I can say without question it’s one of the best shows on TV.
Comrade Detective: I’ve tried to tell everyone I know to watch Comrade Detective. Its one of the funniest hidden gems to emerge on Amazon. The concept is a cold ware era buddy cop show set in Romania. Filmed with Romanian actors in Bucharest, the show dubs the voices with fairly well known American actors.
Castlevania: Netflix released a short anime version of the classic video game Castelevania, which is brilliant. It focuses mostly on the story of Castevania 3 (my favorite game of the series) which was an original NES classic.
Glow: Glow tells the story of aspiring actresses in the mid-80s trying to make it in show business by performing in an all-women wrestling program. Its pretty hilarious, and just like Stranger Things, it brings you back to a version of the 80s.
The Good Place: one of the creators behind the American version of The Office and Parks and Rec came out with a new show about the afterlife. It is brilliant and has plenty of hilarious twists and turns that are bit unusual for broadcast comedies. It’s also a show that has fairly universal appeal.
What to look forward to in 2018
Here are some of the shows and movies coming out in 2018 that I am excited to see…
A Wrinkle In Time: one my all time favorite kids books is being turned into a film, with a pretty substantial budget and cast behind it. I read most of the books by L’Engle when I was young.
Ready Player One: a book that I immensely enjoyed recently is being turned into a movie, and by Spielberg. The story is a bit of Charley and the Chocolate Factory meets Mortal Kombat. I have some concerns because it really is the kind of story that is nearly impossible to bring to the big screen. Legally speaking there are so many intellectual properties in the story I just can see how it would be possible to license all of those properties. If too many of them are sacrificed the nostalgia factor is lost. It will be a tough one to pull off right, but since Spielberg is direction, it has a decent chance.
Altered Carbon: a friend at work recommend this book series to me and I’ve only just started. But I can say it’s one of the more interesting cyberpunk stories I’ve experienced. Netflix is turning it into a series and they have been on a roll. I feel pretty confident this will do well.
Westworld (season 2): Season 1 of Westwold was outstanding. There were so many intricate clues placed throughout the series. Who knows what will happen in season 2. I’m hoping they expand into other worlds suggested in the original film, and sequel Futureworld, which was somewhat hinted at in the season 1 finale.
Cloverfield 3: apparently there will be a third Cloverfield film. But there has been no viral marketing scheme thus far (which is my favorite part of the franchise).
The Predator: Shane Black who played a roll in the original Predator has written and is directing a fourth predator film (not including the Aliens vs Predator films) that is set to take place after Predator 2 in the series. Interestingly Jake Busey will have a roll that appears to be the son of the character his father played in the sequel. This movie has the chance of being pretty great. I really hope we get a Schwarzenegger and/or Glover cameo.
Infinity War: the big collision of all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films is set to occur in Infinity War. Here we will witness the Guardians interacting with the Avengers. Interestingly Disney has since acquired the rights to the Marvel characters that were owned by Fox which means at some point the X-Men could get interwoven into the MCU. As awesome as that would be, I am sad that Hugh Jackman has retired from his role as Wolverine.
Mission Impossible: 6: a sixth Mission Impossible is coming out. They are always pretty good.
Labels: 1-18-08, Best Films, movie, science fiction, tv, X-Men
March 13, 2016
10 Cloverfield Lane Review
Well I just saw the Cloverfield Sequel. 10 Cloverfield Lane is an excellent sci-fi/psychological thriller. I think it's a superior film to the original Cloverfield in many ways. This is thanks to a great story, and excellent acting. The best thing about this new film is that it opens the door for more films each with their own spin on the disaster genre. Cloverfield is now a brand.
(Warning: movie spoilers follow)
Most of the film takes place in a survivalist bunker, where Howard (played by John Goodman) an extremely paranoid middle-age man, has prepared for a major attack. The bunker is also occupied by two younger survivors who are not exactly free to leave: Michelle (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) who has just woken from a car crash, and Emmet (played by John Gallagher), who as it turns out, chose to be in the bunker after seeing some of the attacks as they began.
My wishes for the character of Howard to have a connection to Super 8 didn't really pan out, and Howard actually turned out to be a far more disturbing character than I expected. And that's ok, because it's what makes this movie a nail-bitter. He really is the monster of the movie, a much more terrifying monster than Clover in the original film, or the other terrors that lurk near 10 Cloverfield Lane. It's Mary Elisabeth Winstead who really steals the show, as a very resourceful hostage plotting her survival. I found myself en the edge of my seat almost all of the movie while she dealt with the terrors of being a captive in Howard's world. John Gallagher was also really good in his supporting role. You feel bad for him, knowing he's been duped by the mad Howard, and he pays such a price due to Howard's cruelty.
Some reviewers/commentors online seem to be concerned that there is little connection between the two films. In reality there was never supposed to be a lot of connection, or it was never meant to be explicitly clear. But there actually are pretty clear connections – especially if you pay attention to the alternate reality online games that connect the two films. In the original Cloverfield it is revealed that the character Rob was going off to Japan to work for a company that was in some way connected to a mysterious Japanese conglomerate named Tagruato. The alternate reality games reveal over time that the company had made a significant discovery at one of its deep sea drilling stations, which could be assumed to be instigating the events in both films. In 10 Cloverfield Lane, there is a brief moment where the character Michelle stumbles onto some correspondence from Tagruato to Howard, who was at one point their employee after a stint in the US Navy. That aside, in the film there are mentions to attacks happening on the eastern sea board, which could be the attacks from the original film. Not to mention, the overall theme is very similar: Unknown supernatural/alien forces are wreaking havoc on society.
It's interesting that the director Dan Tractenberg had previously made the well-regarded Portal fan film, as so much of the Cloverfield franchise is aesthetically similar to the Half-Life franchise. There is definitely room for a cross-over.
Ironic movie trivia: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who played John McClane's daughter in the recent Die Hard films, gets her own turn finding out what a TV dinner feels like as she navigates the air vents of the bunker.
Labels: 1-18-08, Bad Robot, movies
January 23, 2016
A Cloverfield/Portal connection
While I was researching the still shocking revelation that a Cloverfield sequel was happening I realized that the director, Dan Trachtenberg, sounded kinda familiar. He used to co-host a couple podcasts I watched back in the late 2000s (the Totally Rad Show, and later GeekDrome), part of the Revision3 podcast network.
However, I was more interested to read that more recently he directed a pretty amazing short film based on the video game Portal. (Portal, along with Portal 2, happen to be my all-time favorite video games!) The film, Portal: No Escape, is excellent. It captures the essence of the game perfectly. This gives me some confidence that the Cloverfiled sequel could be very good. Check out Portal: No Escape.
Portal is set in the Half Life video game universe, and so this film based on Portal reminded me of the fan-films by the Purchase brothers, which are set during the events of Half Life. Produced for next to nothing, the two-part film series Escape from City 17 were so well done, they were mentioned on Valve's very own blog. Watch Part 1 and Part 2 of Escape from City 17.
I hope that this Cloverfield micro-budget sequel generates enough money so Bad Robot can make a feature length Portal film! There were conversations not long ago between Gabe Newel of Valve and Abrams about working on a film version of Portal and/or Half-Life. Watch this video of a convention between Abrams and Newel about video game and film possibilities. Perhaps there could be a cross-over between Cloverfield and Half-Life. The Cloverfield monster does seem very much like a creature you might encounter in Half Life, it would fit right in.
Play the game
I could go on and on about how awesome are Portal and Portal 2. If you consider yourself a casual gamer and have never experienced either, then I have to recommend trying out The Orange Box. For just $20 you can get the original Portal, Half-Life 2 (including Episodes 1 and 2), and Team Fortress. You can buy it through Valve's Steam video game service for PC and Mac, or pick up a copy for Xbox or Playstation. It really is the best deal in video game history.
Labels: 1-18-08, Bad Robot, movies, portal, video games
January 16, 2016
Cloverfield 2! What?!!!
After years of periodically checking the Cloverfield Wikipedia page's sequel section for any news on a possible sequel, this morning I was shocked to discover a new surprise trailer for what is almost certainly a Cloverfield sequel, and it is coming out in just a few months! They did it again!
I was fairly obsessed with the movie Cloverfield. The best part of the experience was the sneaky viral way it was marketed. From the sudden surprise trailer before Transformers, to the sly fake websites advertizing products and mysterious Japanese corporations, etc. This led to dozens of fan forums speculating what the movie was all about. Because other than being about a giant unseen Godzilla-like monster who trashes the Statue of Liberty then proceeds to ruin some guys going away party, we didn't really know much … which made the anticipation awesome!
Now this new film appears to be somehow connected. But it also looks like a film that is very much a departure from the style of the original. There was a theory that a second Cloverfield film would be another found footage style film but from someone else's perspective which could have somehow intertwined with the original, and might perhaps provide more clues to the events in the first film. Instead, this film looks a contained thriller. It appears to be about a survivalist/prepper (played by John Goodman) living in an underground bunker with a couple people he who he claims to be protecting from devastation above. Could that devastation be from the creature in Cloverfield? The other cast include Mary Elizabeth Winstead (who was the grown-up daughter of John McClain in the recent Die Hard films) and John Gallagher Jr.
Now going from the trailer alone there are no obvious connections between the films. However, apparently the film-makers have gone on record that the two films are connected, and even without that knowledge there are some facts that remove any question that they are. First, its a movie made by the same production company, Bad Robot Productions. And, has Cloverfield in the title (the title reveal even displays “Cloverfield” first). The trailer by the way is brilliant! Very similar to the trailer for Cloverfield, in that it begins with a positive atmosphere then seems to shift in tone to something more terrifying.
Other Similarities:
- Both movies were announced with a surprise trailer and were revealed before a Micheal Bay-directed film. Coinsidence?
- Cloverfield was a surprise trailer for the first Transformers film
- 10 Cloverfield Lane was a surprise trailer for 13 Hours
- “Some Thing Has Found Us” was the tag line for Cloverfield. “Some things' coming” is the last line spoken in the trailer for the new film.
Many fans wondered if somehow JJ Abram's Super 8 was connected to Cloverfield, which also featured a viral marketing scheme, and featured a story focused on an encounter with a large alien creature. Both films featured a heavy military presence, and at the core of both stories is the theme of movie-making (in Cloverfield the entire film is presented as found-footage, and in Super 8 the film focuses on a group of adolescent aspiring filmmakers who inadvertently film a disaster that becomes key to the events of that film).
Here is my theory: 10 Cloverfield Lane is somehow a bridge between Cloverfield and Super 8. John Goldman’s character is a witness to the events in Super 8 (who was a child then) which have driven him to become a survivalist in case of any future alien encounter, and is thus ready when the events of Cloverfield take place.
Another possibility: there could be a LOST connection. Any fan of LOST knows that numbers play an important significance in the creations of JJ Abrams. The trailer for this film features numbers pretty prominently. The first shot shows keys featuring the numbers 4, 8, 1 and 3 being pressed on a Jukebox (48 is the number of the album - 13 is the track number). 4 and 8 are two important numbers in the show LOST. Later the number 550 is featured on a puzzle box. No doubt these numbers are clues as to what this movie is about, and have an important significance. Underground Bunkers also play a very important role in LOST.
What do the numbers mean?
This trailer is like a puzzle, there are likely many clues
Living the bunker life
Let the internet treasure hunt for clues begin! I hope John Goodman's character packed plenty of Slusho in that bunker!!!
January 16, 2008
1-18-08 ... roundup
I've been making a list of upcoming movies for 2008 that look the most interesting; first in line is Cloverfield, so I thought as its now down to the wire (2 days to go), I'd write a final posting for the 1-18-08 movie phenomena, I've posted on this mysterious film three times before (click here for 1st, 2nd, 3rd).
Its just a couple days away now; So here's What We DO Know...
Title: Come to find out, the title is indeed Cloverfield, which had previously thought to be only a code-name for the film.
Plot: It is definitely about a monster attacking New York as told threw shots from at least one hand held digital camera (or more) (with 35-mm film segments slipped in). In a recent article in the New York Times about Paramount's chairman Brad Grey, it describes Abram's as figuring “[...]he could make the modern-day equivalent of “Godzilla” for $25 million or less, if he hired a bunch of no-name actors, shot much of the movie with a single $1,500 hand-held camera and threw the rest of his cash into special effects.”
Setting: Location is New York City. The events of the movie are set to occur as the movie premiers, 1-18-08; which is indicated by the time shown on the photos available at 1-18-08.com.
As for What We THINK We Know: The creature itself likely comes from the ocean. Evidence to support this includes: the official poster shows a trail under the water between the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan, the actual roar of the creature (see the BLOOP Theory), and actual clues found in several of the viral marketing sites that were created for promoting the film.
The BLOOP theory: the nature of the 'roar' heard in the preview actually matches closely that of an actual moan from an underwater creature that was recorded by US Navy researchers in 1997. According to those researchers, the source of that moan would have to have been something living and much bigger than any known creature due to strength of the roar at that depth.
As for the viral marketing evidence, read below in the list of websites relating to the film, specifically the mentions of Slusho.jp and Tagruato.jp. Also, fairly recently a video was released mimicking an actual news report of a ocean oil rig owned by the fictional Tagruato Corp. being mysteriously destroyed. It seems to be being pulled down from below.
here's a list of websites relating to the film:
1-18-08.com
This site coinsided with the release of the first surprise teaser at the wide-release of Transformers back in July (at this time, the movie production was only about a week old; the trailer was filmed before the rest of the film). It offers little, except some floating photos taken the night of the party during which the Cloverfield movie takes place (the same time as it's wide release). As time as gone by, more photos have been added, including some very recently that appear to be of military ships and planes engaged in serious combat.
Slusho.jp
Also immediately coinciding with the release of the first surprise teaser was the fictitious Japanese beverage company's website: Slusho.jp. The Slusho logo is shown in the trailer in the main character's shirt. But how is it related to the film? The Slusho site (unlike the 1-18-08 site) is extremely elaborate; full of quirky flash animations.
In fact, if you look around the Slusho site you'll find a bunch of clues about the nature of the “monster” that is attacking the city--like these I found while looking around the Happy Talk section. One statement reads: “Am I a Whale?” Might I presume that this statement implies the creature comes from the ocean? Another statement reads: “Can I have a Slusho T-shirt size XXXL?” Can I presume this statement is implying that the creature is massive? Well, I think so for both counts.
Tagruato.jp
If you look closely enough on the Slusho.jp site (specifically, the Distribution Opportunities page) you'll see that Slusho is a fictitious subsidiary of it's fictitious parent company Tagruto (Website: Tagruto.jp). Tagruto's stated principle business is deep sea drilling, which gives credit to the idea that the monster in Cloverfield is from the ocean, and is
Of course, all of this viral marketing, from the Slusho shirt in the trailer to the fake TIDO Wave organization website could be an extremely elaborate ruse to distract fans from the actual creature that attacks in the movie.
There are also various Myspace pages for the principle characters of the film, which have been updated to add to the anticipation of film's release.
JamieandTeddy.com
The most significant finding related to the Myspace pages was a personal site for two of the film's characters Jamie and Teddy, a seemingly personal site where videos are created by Jamie for Teddy who is away on business. You have to find the password to access the videos. And while everything seemed to be going well for these two, and some speculated that this site actually had nothing to do with Cloverfield's viral marketing at all, but a recent video seemed to say otherwise...in the latest video (the ninth), the cryptic responce from Jamie (who does not believe Teddy's claim that he's in trouble) states that she's seeing things much clearer now thanks to the 'stuff' sent from Teddy. Could this stuff be related to Slusho??
Cloverfieldmovie.com
This official promotional website isn't really part of the viral marketing campaign, but once the hype for the movie had extended to a more mainstream audience, and just in time for the 2007 holidays, two new trailers were shown, extending what we already knew about the movie, several new TV-spots and at least one radio spot was released, apparently some huge posters have been seen on buildings in NYC promoting the film, and now there's an official promotional website for the film: cloverfieldmovie.com. Things seemed to be quickly revving up in a more traditional marketing approach.
Official sites NOT directly related to the film:
Bad Robot
The second site I ever visited relating to the 1-18-08 movie phenomenon when I was searching for clues was Bad Robot's official site (badrobot.com); after all, aside from the date, and JJ Abrams name, the Bad Robot logo was all I remembered accompanying the very intriguing trailer. So far, the site has had nothing more than the static Bad Robot logo.
The Third Floor
The Third Floor is a company that did the previsualizations for cloverfield. Its mentioned in the company notes section in vague terms such as “After being tapped by JJ Abrams’ production company [bad robot] to work on the super-secret “Cloverfield” trailer, (as seen in front of Transformers); The Third Floor delivered previs for the entire feature – coming soon (01-18-08?) to a theatre near you! ” and “The Third Floor is thrilled to announce that our artists have been requested for JJ Abrams’ newest directorial project.” The Third Floor has also worked on Lord of the Rings, The Star Wars Prequels, resident evil 5, to name a few, so we can likely expect some amazing visuals for this film!
Unofficial sites relating to the film:
They certainly know who they're dealing with. Our first glimps of the Cloverfield phenomena was a surprise trailer that caught everybody off guard, shown before Transformers, where a bunch of unsuspecting (and lets be honest) nerds (myself included) were eager to see Transformers. Thats a smart way to target their audience, but I wonder if they had any idea just how effective their viral marketing strategy would be???
The most remarkable thing about this movie (I think) is the cult following that has sprang up following it. One of my favorite sites is 1-18-08news.com. The Forums there have been my preferred way to stay up on information relating to the film. Users there were able to confirm a detailed description of the new teaser trailers weeks before they were released.
There is also 1-18-08truth.com (which has a really nice flash-into parody of 1-18-08.com)
Well, Cloverfield has created an enormous cult following of fans for a movie even before its released and despite that they know next to nothing about the film beforehand. This is a completely opposite approach from the traditional Hollywood trend and so far its proven quite successful. This is what I find most interesting of all. Might this be a sign of things to come?
it really is genius, targeting nerds by setting the film to take place simultaneously as its released (which is unprecedented)and teasing them with shreds of carefully hidden information, causing them to become obsessed with a film. Who wouldn't be there at opening night??? I think very likely this will be a huge box-office success for Paramount, but I'll be surprised if the actual film lives up to the massive hype that has preceded it.
Labels: 1-18-08, Bad Robot, Slusho
August 6, 2007
The 1-18-08 movie: Third Update
This is my third (and probably last for a while) update about the 1-18-08 movie; click here to read the first post, or here for the second. Sorry about the neglect of my blog in general. I've been enjoying summer, just relaxing, partying, and such. (Apparently, I am pretty good at 4-square after one or two beers.)For better or worse, my interest in the 1-18-08 phenomenon has not waned in the time since it first caught my eye as a preview before Transformers, and recently there have been some interesting developments on the net...
So, I'll break this post down into four sections: 1) The new poster, 2) the best sources for info on the movie, 3) Other people's speculation about what the creature is, and 4) my own speculation/analysis of the trailer.
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Part One - The Teaser Poster, Hmmm...
There is now an official teaser poster that corresponds well with what you see in the teaser trailer. It also seems pretty obvious from this image that this is indeed a 'monster movie' (but read part 3 for more about that).
First, this poor quality image (right) from someone's cell phone surfaced. Note: The movie title is not actually “Monstrous” as explained in a YouTube clip (see Part 3 of this post, below, courtesy NightOwl3090) which you can watch in part 3 of this post...
Later this much better resolution image (below) surfaced (Click on the pic to see the larger size):
Any doubt of this images's legitimacy is eliminated by the fact that this image is now the background for the official trailer page on Apple Trailers.
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Part Two – Good sources of information about 1-18-08 - I wanted to point out some of the great sources of information available about the 1-18-08 movie.
1-18-08News.com – a very simple Journal/Blog style page with fairly in-depth analysis of all things related to this movie phenomenon. There is a lot of great information on this page about the film, including behind the scenes footage people have caught with cell-phones of the filming in process. It also includes a forum where people can discuss ideas.
Example of behind the scenes footage captured on someone's cellphone.
Nightowl3090 (who I've referenced earlier) has some very impressive video analysis. He's going extremely in depth, to the point of charting the trajectory of the flight path of the statue's head as it goes from liberty island through downtown Manhattan.
I've also enjoyed watching this goofy Norwegian kid's ("Thrusthamster" on YouTube) analysis of the 1-18-08 phenomenon.
1-18-08 now has a page at Wikipedia. Kinda limited at the moment.
You can also check out the production company's website, badrobot.com, but as of yet, there is nothing there except the Bad Robot logo. (Hmmm, is this 'Bad Robot' logo a caricature of the monster in this film??)
It also might be worth noting these following news clips.
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Part Three – What IT is. It seems now safe to say, this movie is about a 'monster attack.' This was probably already pretty obvious, but it's confirmed by this YouTube clip (below, courtesy NightOwl3090) where you see Abrams speaking at the ComicCon (an annual international comics convention in San Diego), and he states that this movie is something new "We need our own monster." (So it's certain this is not a remake of a previous film, and probably not something someone else has already thought of). He also said that it is inspired by a trip to Japan and their obsession with Godzilla, but it's NOT Godzilla, and that it's definitely also not King Kong (besides, I think Peter Jackson more than did justice to Kong), although, Abrams admitted he thought Kong was “adorable”, which is another way of saying that the creature in his movie will be bad-ass! He also mentions that the film is close to being finished, and will not be called 'monstrous' althoguh some of the teaser posters have that as a header.
So, it's not Kong, it's not Godzilla, it's not this Cthulu creature everyone on the forums are talking about, and it's not anything anyone else has already thought of, and since Abrams has described the likes of Kong as “cute” by comparison, I think it's fair bet he's talking about a new, big, bad-add, m***er-fu**ing monster! That will make all the rest seem like 'little gurls'.
I'm still holding onto the idea that it might be an enormous lion-like monster based on the poem by Irish poet WB Yeats (thanks to my friend Joe who knows his literature). However, there seems to be a lot of speculation that the monster in question comes from the ocean. The most convincing and interesting reasons for this theory I've heard so far was from that Norwegian kid who reported that the sound of the monster's growl you hear in the trailer is very similar to this mysterious “bloop” marine biologists heard a while back deep underwater. I went to Wikipedia to check it out. You can listen to the actual Bloop there and compare with the sound the 1-18-08 monster's roar. Pretty Close. The Bloop itself is almost as creepy as the mystery surrounding the 1-18-08 movie. It came from something with enormous vocal capacity, from a yet unknown massive underwater beast.
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Part Four – My Speculation/trailer analysis I made a short little video of my own still-image analysis of the trailer. There are three things I question in this short video. 1) I point out who, it appears to me, are at the party in the beginning and make it to the ground by the end to witness the crash of the statue of liberty's head, 2) I'm curious as to what is in that box behind the second girl speaking in the trailer, and 3) is that one mysterious guy in the trailer actually Abrams? Looks kinda like him, and he's the last guy you see before the lights go out and you hear the monster's roar.
Labels: 1-18-08
July 20, 2007
Update: 1-18-08 -- The Internet phenomenon that stays fresh longer!
This is a follow up to my earlier post about the 1-18-08 movie“In the city that never sleeps, somebody's woken up on the wrong side of the bed, and he/she/it has a name... CLOVERFIELD!”
1), the personal look and feel...So far, every official bit of media released about this phenomenon has a “user generated” quality to it. The home video nature of the trailer, and the photos appearing on the only official website all come with a personal touch (there's a new one I discovered today). If this trend continues it seems like it will really have the effect of making viewers feel part of the movie experience like never before.
2), this movie, is the first I can think of, that takes place the exact time as it's opening night in theaters. So, when you go to see it on opening night (And of course you will!), you're seeing something that takes place when you're watching it--like watching imaginary live TV. Could it be, the producers wanted to draw the largest opening-night box-office hysteria yet? I think they'll do it.
The producers no-doubt planned to take advantage of the whole social-networking scene that's taking over the internet. I wonder if they were prepared for the reaction they're getting?
Oh, and I have one more question relating to a peculiar quark in all the hysteria surrounding this mysterious film: If that Ethanhaaswasright.com site isn't affiliated with this movie, then what is it affiliated with? And why were people jumping so quick to assume that it was?
Here's my thought (well actually a friend of mine, who was an English Major in college, thought of this immediately as I told him the details). “the monster: is a giant kick ass lion based on the poem 'second coming' by WB Yeats.
Really the most surprising thing so far, is that despite the tremendous hysteria building around this film, no party associated with the film has come forth to spill the beans.
Labels: 1-18-08
July 12, 2007
What was that?
Well, my last post was about my trip to see the new Transformers movie; what I left out, was the bizarre very creepy trailer for a mysterious upcoming disaster/horror/survival flick that left me confused and very intrigued, and with no idea what it was even named!
From watching it, what I knew for sure was: It's either shot with a personal camcorder, or adjusted to appear as such (which is what I suspect) and that it had pretty amazing special effects. As far as plot and story, it involves a creature of some sort wrecking unbelievable heck on NYC; to include, massive explosions, flaming debris, and ending with the head of the statue of liberty crashing down into the street. The questions is, what's going on? And, is their a Godzilla-like creature involved?
Naturally when I got home from Transformers I had to investigate for several hours about what this mysterious movie trailer was. The only things I knew for sure was it was a disaster film, by JJ Abrams, and there was a movie production company by the name of “Bad Robot” involved.
After some long and hard searching I began to gather more clues about this movie, and I've discovered some very interesting pieces of information. (Most importantly, that I have succumbing to a very elaborately planned form of viral movie marketing unlike anything before. And it's working, there are forums and user-generated videos exploding all over the net. Apparently, I'm not the only one confused and intrigued.) So I thought I'd try to share some of the information I've compiled about this upcoming thriller...
At first, I tried to locate a copy of the trailer on YouTube, but everywhere I looked I got that all to familiar message that it had been removed because of copyright restrictions, and so forth. (Which seems a little odd since it's a trailer, not actually a film that comes with a “don't copy this” message, and nobody even knows what it's even called!) This aggressive removal of the trailer by Viacom only made me want to see the trailer MORE! I felt very clever after I found a page that had, at the time, the best available copy of the trailer somebody had recorded with their cell phone. However, that's all irrelevant now as a much better official version of the trailer (available in High Definition) is up on Apple Trailers.
After more digging, on IMDb forums, and various other movie forum pages, I discovered the film currently has at least 3 “code names” but no actual name. It goes by 1-18-08 (the release date of the film), as well as, “Cloverfield” and “Slusho”. There is also possibly “The Parasite.” On IMDB it's the Unnamed JJ Abrams Project.
As I kept digging I found this guys YouTube clips that offer some absurdly in-depth analysis of the trailer and related materials. I can't believe the level of detail he's put into researching this mysterious trailer. Apparently the trailer is rich with potential clues as to an explanation of what this movie really is about. And he's funny too, hey wait a minute!...Maybe he's part of this viral marketing conspiracy? (Well, consciously or not, I guess anyone reading any of this is.)
Oh, and in a couple places (IMDb forums and such) it seems to be popular for people to link to this specific part of a page on Wikipedia about a Jappanese horror flick in the same vein as Godzilla.
Apparently, there is only one “official” page for the movie, which is here. If you go there you'll see two photographs that relate to the film that you cam move around. Listen to NightOwl3090's analysis about the picture of the women.
But I found a couple other really helpful pages, including this one that gives information about the cast, these other two potentially related websites.
Wow, up until the release of Transformers, nobody knew anything about this film. This movie already is amazing, just with respect to the elaborate nature of all of this viral marketing. The less I know, the more curious I am.
As a final note: I consulted a friend who was an English major and he instantly had a clue as to what this movie MIGHT be about that I think no one else on the various forums has figured out yet. The trailer reminded him of a famous poem by the Irish poet WB Yeats, about a Lion monster. Check it out. However, that guess is somewhat influenced by the fact I thought the guy on the street was saying “It's a Lion, it's Huge” when it turns out, according to the analysis by nightbowl3090, it's really “It's Alive, It's huge.” But, who knows, that poem might still be related.
I suspect that it won't be just another Godzilla movie, but from the looks of it, will be more like a documentary about what would happen if Godzilla got hammered on Redbull and Vodka. Whatever this film's about, it's likely to be effectively scary/thrilling and huge in the box-office.
Labels: 1-18-08