I saw it tonight. It wasn’t bad. I have a question for anyone who actually say it AND waited around through the German Fat Lady opera music at the end:
After all the credits rolled and the music finally faded there was a brief recording from the camera and the guy SEEMED to say either ‘We are alive’ or ‘It is not a lie’…I couldn’t tell which. I’m not even sure who it was though I assume it was the brother who rescued his girlfriend (can’t think of his name…it’s very late). Did anyone else catch that? Any thoughts on what it was supposed to be saying?
For those who haven’t seen the movie the constant giggling camera was a bit much some times. One of the friends we went with was looking a little green about half way through the movie…but then she sometimes does that when I play a FPS type game to, so take that with a grain of salt. My only quibble with the movie was that if this was an expensive enough camera to have a night vision feature, as well as some of the other fairly advanced features on it, I’m pretty sure there would have been a steady cam feature to (my camera has this). While it wouldn’t have made much difference during some of the scenes, I thought others were a bit forced on the giggle factor…probably to make it edgy and chaotic and lend it an air of psudo-realism. I wish they had actually gone and got a COTS camera with the features they had and used THAT instead of deliberately trying to make it look more shaky than it would have been otherwise.
Other than that and a few quibbles about the smaller spider thingies which I don’t feel like making spoiler boxes to bitch about I thought the movie was damn good…and FWIW I’d recommend it to anyone who likes suspense filled SciFi type horror flicks…and who doesn’t get green in the gills watching someone play Quake Wars.
First off it was obvious that Hud wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. I would EXPECT someone like his character to hold onto the camera especially when things started to go tits up…almost like something he was asked to do and him continuing to do it being an anchor to reality or sanity or whatever. I thought that was very realistic.
Almost completely successful film, I thought. Accomplished everything it set out to do, and I was in it from the first frame. I really got on board with the “found footage” angle too. I do agree that I wish we could see the monster a little better, but my feeling is they’re keeping it a little mysterious so there can be a series of these “found tapes”, hence sequels with other code names, and hopefully filling out the bigger picture more.
The shaky-cam was a must, considering the premise, and didn’t bother me or the people I saw it with in the least.
My issue isn’t with his actions or motivation for filming. I only wish that he could have been the sharpest tool in the shed. If his goofiness were removed from the film, I think the atmosphere would have been downright shit-your-pants scary, evoking feelings of hopelessness and desperation. Not that it wasn’t terrifying anyway.
And about the radio at the end of credits:
I read somewhere that the guy on the radio says, (with the audio reversed) “It’s still alive,” or something to that effect. JJ Abrams has used reversed audio several times on Lost, so this seems plausible to me.
I couldn’t make the link on post # 77 work, so I have no idea yet, what the monster looks like. Is there a pic anywhere on line?
I heard a review on NPR this evening, and Bob Mondello was saying that the first visual manifestation of the monster was some giant flea-like critters, that you definitely do NOT want biting you.
In my opinion, the link posted here had only vague similarities to the creature.
As I was driving home last night I turned a corner and there was a Statue of Liberty at the entrance to a strip mall. It scared the shit out of me for a second, both because I wasn’t expecting a big statue there (it wasn’t the same size as the real one but it was a pretty big statue) and because I had a momentary flash of some giant thing whacking its head off.
Regarding the splash at the end of the film. I really think it had to be the monster. It was filmed a few weeks before the attack. The monster obviously came from the ocean, attacking the statue and capsizing a tanker before heading into the city.
It would be great if we could discuss this without hiding spoilers.
The boyfriend and I were discussing the film and we decided that monsters really, really hate New York. I was picturing King Kong, Godzilla and this creature all wearing I “heart” New York t-shirts with the circle with a slash over the heart. Perhaps the back could say “I destroyed New York and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.” The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms also attacked New York, I know some aliens have attacked New York, too. Can anyone think of any other monsters that have not “hearted” New York?
ETA: Sorry that last comment may be a hijack, is it worth starting a new thread?
I’m about to go out the door to see this movie, so I’ve tried to avoid reading too many spoilers here. One thing I do wonder (based on the trailer, and on many other movies) are the military guys National Guard troops, or U.S. Army? What’s the nearest Army base to Manhattan, and what kind of equipment do they have readily available? We’ve gone almost two centuries without a mainland invasion of the U.S.; have contingency plans and supplies been beefed up since 9/11?
Are we far enough along to do without spoilers? I wonder about the mass and strength of the monster. The destruction that it causes, even with a single appendage, was remarkable*. I thought there was a brief glimpse of it walking on two “legs”…did anyone else see that?
*well, duh…it’s a monster movie!
Why the hell is shaky cam supposed to be “realistic”- I’ve seen hundreds of home videos where the videographer was able to keep their hand steady. If you’re running that’s one thing, but shaky cam during the non-tense scenes?
I think we should be beyond the point where spoiler tags are needed.
I think the monster got up on two legs just before it leaped at the helicopter after the air strike. That’s what it looked like to me though it was hard to tell with the camera moving around so much.
One thing I noticed was that the monster was not the agile T Rex sort of creature like Godzilla was. It seemed to have difficulty on land which I liked as it felt more realistic (hah!) It was to my eye definitely a primarily seagoing creature that was able to move around on land.
Just got back. Wow; overall I thought it was very effective. Poor Hud; died with his camera on. Since almost nothing is explained, we’re wide open for a sequel, which could be done in several different ways; there would lots of other stories to tell of the same night. You could just follow a military unit, or a scientific team, or a news chopper.
Kind of a bad night for all concerned. Let’s see, you’ve got a giant city-trashing monster which is covered with giant lice that attack people and bite them, giving them an infection that apparently causes death within an hour by explosive hemorrhaging. That’s just a crappy night.
I read Roger Ebert’s review, which was three stars (unlike some critics, he doesn’t look down his nose at monster movies). But it’s one of those times when I wonder if Roger didn’t catch a few winks during the screening:
They didn’t make it to Brooklyn; the bridge was destroyed when they were partway across, and they had to turn back to Manhattan; 2) Lily took her shoes off and carried them. Minor point, but it indicates he just wasn’t paying attention.
The end-credit music – I’m no expert, but didn’t that share a motif with the Godzilla music Toho Studios used all those years?
Have you seen the movie yet? Cuz, it’s shaky when he’s running, and just your typical handheld feel when he’s not. It’s not like they’re purposely shaking the camera around, willy-nilly. :dubious:
Anyway, I thought the theme music (titled: “Roar!”) was cool. The woman singing sounded a little Star Trek: OS-ish to me!
Can’t believe I missed the splash at the end. Also, I noticed the credits mentioned stills from Them, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and King Kong, but I don’t remember seeing those images in the movie. I might have to go again. (20,000 fathoms is 23 miles; there’s no place in the ocean that deep. If there’d been a SDMB back when that movie came out, we’d be nitpicking that movie to death.)
Waited through the whole credits to hear the “radio static” at the end; couldn’t make out a damn thing.
I guess I wasn’t paying attention either. I thought they got back via the subway.
Still doesn’t explain how they had the energy to climb up 49 flights of stairs then traverse a building that probably wouldn’t be very structurally intact anymore leaning like that…or how the building COULD lean like that without falling over.
I was actually picturing a fat German lady with a spear and wearing a horned helmet while making grand gestures to the audience.
The stills were and thing like the Sponge Bob episode were on posters or playing on various TV’s (like the one in the looted electronic store). The radio message at the end was barely worth waiting through the credits for as it was VERY hard to hear IMHO. I still don’t know exactly what it said…though I like to think it was audio from the camera saying ‘we are still alive’. Since we know the camera was eventually recovered it would make sense that so were the two people trapped with it…otherwise how would the camera ever have been found in a city strewn with rubble and dead people?
