Ah, first blog post of the New Year!! Hopefully you all went to some nice New Year’s Eve parties and got appropriately toasted! I know I did. . .and paid for it the morning after, that’s for damn sure. But enough about my social excursions! It’s time to talk about Cloverfield. Yep, we’re into the home stretch now, as hype picked back up on the project with the release of the final trailer back in November, and we’re now less than a week away from the film hitting theaters. But how much more do we really know, compared to when the teaser was released back in July?

For one, the film IS titled Cloverfield, as a lot of speculation was made as to whether it would be officially titled something else. I’m sure I speak for a lot of people who probably figured this was always going to be the title of the film, and for what it’s worth, I’m fine with it. As director Matt Reeves explains, “Cloverfield” is meant to be the government/military’s designation for what exactly happens in the film. And surprisingly, we’re still not sure exactly what that is. What we do know is that the film is meant to be treated as found footage, kind of like Blair Witch Project. The tape basically covers the events that precede the initial attack and everything that happens afterwards, as a group of friends try to get out of the city.

The big mystery, of course, has been what the infamous monster will look like. Several sites claimed to have designs and concept art detailing the look of the Cloverfield monster, but they’ve all been debunked. I have to say, I’m impressed with how well the filmmakers have managed to keep so much of this film under wraps, especially with the internet being such an accessible bastion for movie fans, hungry for spoilers for upcoming films. The internet has played a remarkable role, though, as the viral marketing for the film has been fairly extensive. There are a variety of video blogs (such as www.jamieandteddy.com, password: jllovesth) and staged news reports, as well as the websites for the Japanese drilling company Tagruato Corp., and the Slurpee-like beverage, Slusho (The beverage has appeared in other JJ Abrams-related properties, such as Alias, and even one episode of Heroes). All seem to be connected to the events in Cloverfield, with rumors speculating for months since the release of the teaser, that the monster may have actually developed due to the “secret ingredient” in Slusho. Granted, how much of this is actually touched upon in the film remains to be seen. I kind of like the idea of it all being left to the audiences’ imagination.

All things considered, I’m looking forward to the film. Hopefully it’ll turn out a bit more coherent than The Blair With Project, a film I’ve always found incredibly pretentious and dull, and I’m still baffled as to why so many people were enamored with it (I kinda prefer the sequel. Yeah, go ahead, sue me!). Cloverfield, by comparison, just seems a lot more expansive, not to mention a hell of a lot more focused. Then there’s the fact that this is actually taking place in New York City, post-9/11. Not to downplay the significance of that event, but I’m happy to see that Hollywood isn’t afraid to do a film like this. Surely, it’ll have its chaotic moments, and surely a handful of moviegoers will end up having seizures from all the shaky camera movement. The monster’s look may be disappointing, but who knows? A lot can definitely go wrong with a film like this, but the potential for it to be good, if not great, is certainly there.