I just saw the movie for the first time over the weekend (or most of it anyway-- missed a bit at the beginning). It wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I had expected it to be-- I may even watch it again, which is more than I can say for a lot of movies.
Anyhoo, as many will no doubt recall, there were several “viral marketing” type ad websites before the movie came out. These included MySpace pages for the various twentysomethings, but there were also links to websites for a Japanese beverage called “Slush-O” and its parent corporation, which was also involved in deep-sea oil drilling. According to the websites, the beverage was made with a “secret ingredient” only found in the ocean, and it was strongly implied that all this somehow tied in with the Cloverfield monster.
As it turned out, none of this seemed to have any bearing on the events in the film, and I’m curious to find out if the blanks are filled in anywhere else. Is there a DVD extra feature that explains the backstory? Did the makers of the film have any notion about what Cloverfield was actually supposed to be? It seemed like the ads went to a lot of trouble to hint that there was some bigger picture.
Well, going by the timestamps, the Coney Island footage was shot a few weeks before the events in the movie. The implication is that whatever caused the splash was either the monster itself, or something which resulted in the monster’s appearance.
Well okay, but how does that tie in with Slush-O or deep-sea drilling?
I find it kind of odd that no one mentioned this splash during the rest of the film (not that I remember, anyway-- possibly it was mentioned in passing and I just didn’t register it. I would have thought that Goofy Guy would have fastened on to such a thing: “Hey, remember that mysterious splash? And now there’s a monster that came out of the sea! You know, I bet that splash had something to do with it.”–etc.).
I dunno. Maybe the deep-sea drilling cut into a cavern under the floor bed, releasing the monster, which splashed to the surface. Or something.
As I said, it was only shown toward the end of the movie. It was subtle, and I liked that. I hate HATE HATE movies which show some subtle detail in the background and then have a character blather on about it as if we, the audience, are idiots and didn’t catch it.
In the beginning, the reason Rob is leaving behind Beth and going to Japan is that he’s been offered a job as VP of marketing at Slusho, so there’s that.
I agree, but in this case it would make a lot of sense. Especially if it was supposed to be a satellite-- hell, as soon as the monster appeared, everybody in New York would immediately connect it to the satellite that splashed down within sight of the coast, even if there really was no connection. “Last week: space satellite hits the ocean. This week: giant monster comes out of the ocean.” First thing I’d think of, I know that.
Yeah, but this was something that was so subtle that I don’t know anyone who noticed it. I only noticed it after reading all the posts by fanboys on the Internet. It just seems a little pointless to put something in that’s so random that most people won’t even get it…
Is Hud’s blog still up? I liked how his profile changed when the movie came out.
(His height was updated to 3’ 6", apparently reflecting the monster-caused reduction of stature.)
As far as the splash goes, it’s pretty obscure even on the DVD.