Cloverfield thoughts

Note to JJ Abrams: Make more movies, QUICK!

As the credits rolled after watching Cloverfield in the theater, I was thinking, "Why aren't more movies made like this??" And I'm not focusing so much on the realistic camcorder style of filming (although that did play a major part), but the fact that the answers weren't spoon fed to you. In fact, you're still left with a bunch of unanswered questions after the film ends. But you know what? That's what made it great for me! The only thing you can do for the unanswered questions is to visit in your mind any subtle clues the film may have provided. And as much as I tried to bring back anything to form an answer, I couldn't. Whether it was about the monster's origin, or any other detail, nothing was provided easily. And that's cool. In my humble opinion, I think we've been too easily satisfied with formulaic stories that are wrapped up nice and tidy at the end. And there is a place for those types of films. But they seem to have been the majority for a while. Films like this and 28 Days Later leave you with a grim, realistic feeling, even days after watching. It's the type of story that you wind up thinking, "If something like that ever happened, we're fucked."

With something like this, you confront an extreme type of fear. Unrealistic? Yes. But facing this kind of fear can actually do some good. I'll end with a quote by J.J. Abrams:

“We live in a time of great fear. Having a movie that is about something as outlandish as a massive creature attacking your city allows people to process and experience that fear in a way that is incredibly entertaining and incredibly safe. I want to have that experience myself – to go to a movie that’s about something larger-than-life and hyper-real, and ‘Cloverfield’ certainly is.”