On another movie
Just re-watched Cloverfield after seeing it when it first came out a few years back. It is a “found-footage” horror/disaster movie, and I don’t usually like them. They usually seem sloppy to me. I didn’t like The Blair Witch Project (personal technology is affecting a lot of people’s lives, and this movie was ahead of its time in a way but did like one of the writer/director’s later films that was not done in found-footage mode, Lovely Molly.)
Cloverfield is about a man in NYC who is about to move to Japan for work and is being filmed by a buddy. I think one of the themes of the film is that there are dangers to globalization; it isn’t all good. The city is suddenly attacked by giant monsters, and the US military fight back while the lead character tries to save his friends.
I think this film may be a reflection on the movie Godzilla, which was also about a giant monster. The movie was made soon after World War II and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Japanese may have wanted an artistic metaphor for that destruction.
Don’t think I will ever watch Cloverfield again, but it is an interesting film if you like fantasy and action.