10 Cloverfield lane
I r
emember a couple of commercials for 10 Cloverfield Lane, and as well as getting some promotional swag for the film at Horror Relm last spring. It struck me as one of those kind of movies where I planned to wait and catch it on video – I wasn’t opposed to seeing it, but wasn’t in a hurry to catch in the theatre.
I liked Cloverfield back in the day, but haven’t seen it since its original run – even in the end scene, I could never quite make out the monster, and the ending made me sad – generally, I don’t revisit films that leave me feeling sad… Even good ones like this.
Sequels, on the other hand are always welcome .
I’m not sure what exactly I expected from 10 Cloverfield Lane… But this was pretty much exactly it– after a global catastrophe, A group of shady people hide together in a paranoid bunker that is about to r
each the boiling point. Quite frankly, I don’t trust any of our characters and I wasn’t surprised by what was happening outside the bunker… it’s a good, high tension thriller, with a couple of really well done set pieces, a solid connection to the Cloverfield universe, and better than average performances.
I happen to love John Goodman. I think for most of his career he’s been one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood, and I’m pleased that rolls like this are finally getting him some attention from the movie industry – his range is really visible in films like the big Lebowski, and he was easily the most talented performer on Roseanne Barr show… That always felt like slumming it to me…
Our other male lead, he is forgettable done in fact I think that’s really what is entailed war was supposed to be… Is 
“the other guy “… There’s not a great deal of your development and it doesn’t need to be because the real focus here is on the girl. Y ou know, I realize she supposed to be the lead character, but I still don’t trust her any further then I can throw her… There was something about her that is just off-putting to me, and I spent the entire movie trying to figure out what it was. It didn’t become apparent to me until I checked her IMDB and discovered she had portrayed reminder flowers in Scott Pilgrim versus the world.
I enjoy both the Scott Pilgrim films and books, and I am adamant in my position that Ramona Flowers is a horrible personality who uses people in general, and Scott in particular. She is wholly undeserving of the love or devotion that he commits to her and that stigma clings to the actress a bit, bleeding over into her role in this film (I understand that neither fair nor logical – it’s purely a matter of emotion, and not unique to her situation… Ask me sometime about how I feel regarding the Denise Richards)
But I digress…
The reason it’s so easy to go off on a tangent when discussing this movie is because while it’s fun, I didn’t have any real connection to it – there is nothing particularly special about it other than being just another thriller
Or is there?
As I was perusing the IMDb page, I noticed a mention of someone who had laid out his explanation for these films – this intrigued me as I wasn’t aware of any explanation required. Both movies seemed to stand very well on their own. What I discovered intrigued me more than the features themselves… Apparently there is an entire world devoted to the Cloverfield online… Like an online scavenger hunt or puzzle, made up of websites, merchandising, clues and hints, videos and ultimately the films themselves – a group of gamers engaging in a passtime with all of the atmosphere of a conspiracy theory(but none of the lunacy). It’s the sort of expansion of the universe that we once relied upon movie novelisations to engage in – and a brilliant 21st century way of constructing it.
So here’s the deal – if you haven’t seen Cloverfield or 10 Cloverfield Lane, go watch them… Do it now. If you have seen these films, keep scrolling down and heading into the YouTube links below… Here the presenter lays out the case for these films, and connects them to the various and sundry components – websites, journalling, behind-the-scenes stuff. It’s completely worth your time and will bring a depth to the films you couldn’t have imagined existed.
As for me, I’m heading back down into my bunker– you can knock all you want, but don’t expect me to open the door.
Unless maybe you bring me pizza.
Argo City Comics 