Cloverfield

We saw the movie this weekend.  I promise, no spoilers here.  Short summary is we really enjoyed the film.  It felt like "Summer Popcorn" in the Winter.

Cloverfield is a movie that my wife and I have been anticipating.  It's produced by J. J. Abrams.  He produces our favorite television show, Lost.  Certainly there's been a lot of interesting "teases" going on that have built up the anticipation for this film's release.

It's obviously a monster movie.  What surprised me was how realistic many of the scenes were.  I mean, like most action science-fiction films, a certain level of suspension of disbelief is required to enjoy the movie.  But the story is told from a more personal angle and not from the large scale storytelling approach that films like this usually take.  I actually liked the more personal angle and home video camera point-of-view.

It is an exciting film.  My wife was holding onto my hand through much of the film and she remarked afterwards that she could tell I was pretty excited because she could feel my accelerated pulse in my thumb.  I liked the sound effects and the special visual effects.  Like a good horror film, the audience doesn't get a clear look at the monster for much of the movie.  But there is a very clear scene coming and the creature looks pretty original.

I liked the line in the film where one of the principal characters asks a military man if he knows what the thing is.  The guy answers, "I don't know what it is, but I know that it's winning."

I've read that there's a little snippet of audio that plays after all the credits.  So we sat and waited, along with several other people, for the credits to complete.  And there is something playing there but I couldn't make it out.  So if you go see the film, you may want to wait for it.

The music wasn't that interesting.  I often listen carefully to the movie soundtrack, but I didn't enjoy this one.  The only time you hear it seemed to be during the credits.  Disappointing really, since the composer, Michael Giacchino, also composes music for Lost and I have enjoyed that body of music.

In summary, it's a fun thriller.  It lasts about 90 minutes and tells a story but not really about the monster itself.  Rather, the film is about the young New Yorker's that got caught-up in the impact of the monster attacking their city.

Oh yea, there's a trailer for the upcoming Star Trek movie.  It was cool to hear Leonard Nimoy's voice in the voice-over of the Star Trek trailer.