Cloverfield. It's an E ticket ride but you might need dramamine if you get vertigo easily. If you haven't seen the movie yet don't read the rest until you do so I don't spoil it for you.
First of I knew that if 46 million people in the US saw this basically the first weekend so that it was in a class of movie like "Iam Legend" with Will Smith. I was concerned that I might get vertigo and get sick but since I had been taught the trick of closing my eyes or looking away from the screen by IMAX managers in Las Vegas, I knew to look away from the screen if I felt vertigo or nauseous. So I did okay. My biggest problem with the movie was the overwhelming sound. It goes from very soft in a party or with two lovers to feeling like one is literally caught with ones pants down in the middle of a serious battle in a war to the death.
In other words the movie is just as overwhelming as real life. And that is exactly where it hits the audience. It is very easy to believe that all this is happening except that Godzilla is there. However, the feel of everything is very real like when one watches Saving Private Ryan. You actually feel like you are there. Things aren't explained just like in real life. You have to move with no information or not enough information which is also just like real life.
So, also the decisions made are just as ineffective as real life. Without enough information many people die needlessly just like during 9-11-01. And also, I found this movie very therapeutic in a very odd sort of way. I realized just how healing this movie was for me, personally, because of some similarities to what people in buildings and on the streets of New York experienced during 9-11. So for people around world there is a chance for both understanding and healing in regard to watching this movie around 9-11 and all the long term traumas and changes it brought to all our lives.
So, when all the people you are rooting for don't make it you are really not surprised. There is a moment, if you are an adult when you realize they likely won't make it. It is when Beth calls Rob on his cellphone and begs for his help as she is bleeding to death in her high rise apartment. His decision to go into harms way to find her and save her gives everyone in the audience who is an adult an ominous foreboding in regard to Rob's life and anyone who chooses to follow him. Unfortunately ,our adult suspicions were sadly confirmed about this going to Beth being not only a bad idea but a fatal one for all who join Rob on his journey to rescue Beth.
What I found incredibly lifelike about the movie is that if Godzilla hadn't impaled Beth on an exposed piece of 3 foot rebar used for reinforcing cement about 1/2 inch in diameter Beth would have never known that Rob actually loved her(he was a long time friend who slept with his friend who he didn't know he loved)and Rob would have gone off to Japan likely never to see the love of his life again. Life is really crazy like that. I can remember an equally crazy situation like that in my life. And I went off and that was the permanent end of a relationship that could have or maybe even should have ended in marriage. So in a sense I have seen a real incident in my life that mirrored what could have been in this movie.
However, I'm not sure whether it would work if everyone all of a sudden tried to use this method in other movies. IT HAS TO BE A REALLY GOOD MOVIE TO PUT UP WITH THIS MUCH VERTIGO FOR MOVIE GOERS. Remember that, movie makers.
PS January 26th 2008- It took me several days because of all the chaos of the movie but I just realized that Beth might have survived because she is put on a helicopter before the one Rob and the rest get on. So if she managed not to bleed to death from being impaled through the shoulder by a 1/2 inch thick re-bar(cement reinforcing metal bar) then at least she might have survived.
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