Saturday, January 19, 2008

Viral marketing

... really works. I only heard about the movie two or three days ago and already I've seen it (thank goodness it was so close to release date). Now, I am sitting in a cafe having a coffee and trying to settle my stomach after watching "Cloverfield". When T told me she was planning NOT to see it, even though it was a J.J. Abrams (of Lost fame) production, because the pre-publicity reminded her of the unsteady handheld of The Blair Witch Project, I thought "how bad could it be". Let me tell you, I think it must be something about incessant camera movement because at one point there I felt absolutely sick to my stomach and realised (late flash of insight) that it was motion sickness. The only respite came when the camera was focused on a television or lying on the ground and was thankfully still for a couple of moments. Hmmm - I hate to admit it, but I fear I may be in the wrong demographic for this one. However, it was almost worth it for the line "it's time to leave the electronics store" (I am sure that is a misquote but it's hard to remember correctly when you're feeling nauseous!). And one other thing. The session time was advertised as 9:30am, I arrived at the cinema at 9:45 and asked what time the feature started ... when they said "it starts in 30 seconds" I thought I'd risk it, hoping it wasn't one of those where the scene is actually set during the opening credits (a la "Independence Day" aka ID4). I made it in plenty of time and was settled in my seat at least one commercial before the feature started. And my point is? Cloverfield is one of the shortest movies I have seen in ages. It started at about 9:50am and was over at 11:10am or thereabouts making 80 mins approx with long title and end credits. In this instance, I'm not complaining.
Verdict: Scary. That so many people today record the world on digitial devices (yes, I know, I'm one of them).
Rating for the movie: 6/10

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It is not just you feeling sick -

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cloverfield24jan24,1,2380178.story?ctrack=3&cset=true

Viral marketing for a film that leaves you feeling sick - seems apt.

TK