Will CLOVERFIELD Be Worth The Hype?

If you don't care about the movie CLOVERFIELD and/or have no plans to see it, you might just want to ignore this.

I have to admit that I'm one of those Kaiju (basically Japanese Big Monster) fans who has bought into the hype for this movie. I've read reviews and spent hours the past week visiting just about every website (official and not) associated with it. This Friday, since I'm scheduled off, I plan on seeing it at the Kaleidoscope Mall theatre in Mission Viejo. I can't recall the last time I was this curious about a movie, especially a 'horror/sf' flick.

If you go over to the IGN site you'll find links to all kinds of stuff. The folks at Bad Robot and Paramount have created a number of 'bogus' sites over the past months where you can see a lot of back story that is not even mentioned in the film. There are video news reports (supposedly from American & European stations) in at least three different languages that report the destruction of an ocean platform. You can find a site for the Japanese drink SLUSHO! and learn about the mysterious source of this fine beverage. In the movie, the lead character has been hired by this firm and the incidents portrayed happen on the night of his 'farewell' party.

In Japan there is a manga prequel being published, some of which you can find online if you search long enough. Hasbro will be coming out with a Cloverfield monster model for around a hundred dollars later this year, but has not released a photo so as not to ruin things. There is already talk by the producers of a sequel and all types of rumors are flying about tie-ins and related products.

I'll let you all know what I think this coming Saturday. I just hope that I'm not disappointed.

(Spoiler: This is one of the film's posters. Look into the clouds to the right of the Statue of Liberty. Is that it?)

Quick update: Just read the Roger Ebert reviw and he gives it 3 stars. Guess that would be a qualified Thumbs Up if he was in the balconey. The review itself is mostly favorable, mentioning as everyone does that the shaky camera work does bother some folks. Only problem I had was that he seems to give away a bit too much of the ending in his very first paragraph. That's a tad sloppy for somebody like Ebert, don't you think?