So over the weekend I finally dragged my ass to the cinema to watch Cloverfield, and yes it’s an ok film. Great effects, interestingly told story, and imaginative (to a point), but my problem lies in the hype.So over the weekend I finally dragged my ass to the cinema to watch Cloverfield, and yes it’s an ok film. Great effects, interestingly told story, and imaginative (to a point), but my problem lies in the hype. Can a film (or toy or album etc) ever live up to mass hysteria hype? The viral ad campaign for Cloverfield was cleverly instigated and although I have neither the time nor the patience to follow the trail and clues that were left for all the film nuts and cyber geeks out there, it certainly got people talking. Now my issue doesn’t really lie within this campaign but more in the trailer, and film trailers in general. For a start off, did a film with such a successful marking campaign need a trailer? I suspect that a few cleverly released snippets would have sufficed. My problem mainly comes down to this… Why do film makers feel the need to make us watch all the good parts of a film before it even comes out?



Ok so I get why they do it, and yes it works, its gets us to the cinema. However it only leaves us, the honourable cinema goer, feeling cheated with a horrible taste in our mouths. One of the trailers on Cloverfield was for a film called The Bank Job. Now I hadn’t actually heard anything about this film, but I came across as an interesting Brit flick with a cool story (even though it may have been done a million different times before in different guises). However as the trailer went on…. For what felt like about 15 min… I felt that by the end of it I had seen the whole film and didn’t actually need to go to see it anymore. (here is a shorter version but go watch it.. you will still feel like you have seen the whole film http://www.thebankjobmovie.com/)



So back to case in point, Cloverfield. All the really good bits, like the head of liberty flying through the streets of Manhattan etc had already been shown in all the trailers, which just lead to disappointment, and the monster… well how many monster attributes can we get into one creature? But that isn’t the point, I’m not here to slate the film, it was enjoyable enough. The point is, stop showing us all the good bits!! And NO nothing can ever live up to the Hype, because nothing can be better than thing you have created in your mind… enough said!