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Monday, January 14, 2008

MEGA-SPOILER! Cloverfield Monster Revealed

With mere days to go, the Cloverfield hype machine is cranking at a fever pitch, and now the mother of all spoilers has dropped. This is something that has been out there for a couple of days now, but owing to my exceptional journalistic integrity, I was sitting on it until it could be reasonably confirmed.

The drawing of the giant beastie that tears up Manhattan in the film that opens this weekend first appeared on /Film a couple of days ago, and now the fanboys over at Unfiction have apparently confirmed that it was made by someone who actually attended an advanced screening of the movie:

(Note to self: If you ever make a giant monster movie, make sure not to invite any professional illustrators to the advanced screening.)

I will say that the extra set of massive claws is a neat touch, but other than that, it seems decidedly run-of-the-mill after all the hype we've been inundated with. Then again, could anything live up to it? I think movie marketers are going to find that is the problem with this new viral craze--it inevitably leads to backlash and disappointment. Of course, all the webgeeks also need to realize that they probably make up 15-20% of the people who will be going to see this movie, tops. Meaning that the vast majority of its sure-to-be-record-setting audience this weekend has probably never been exposed to a single pixel of Cloverfield internet propaganda.

For several more fan illustrations of the monster, go to /Film.

9 comments:

  1. This is not the monster. Sorry to share the bad news.

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  2. Hmmmm...Not bad news at all. Very interesting, actually. I'm assuming then that you've seen the movie. If that's true, then it just continues to build the suspense, doesn't it. Cool.

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  3. That artwork looks a lot like the monster from South Korea's recent THE HOST.

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  4. Others have said the same thing. I haven't seen The Host, so it's tough for me to judge.

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  5. I just got back from Cloverfield and this definitely is NOT the monster.

    I think it is The Host actually, hard to remember though cuz I saw it over a year ago.

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  6. I don't know--I just got back from it as well, and I think it was. The two sets of arms, the bags on the side of the face were all there. The face looked somewhat different, more humanoid in the movie--maybe this was actually an earlier production sketch?

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  7. I think all this debate and speculation may just be more entertaining than the monster itself.

    Still, I thought the monster pic cool, I just love creatures and the front arms with claws look nasty.

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  8. Yes, all the viral marketing and debate they stirred up was a brilliant bit of showmanship. But the movie really is excellent, and didn't even need these kinds of smoke-and-mirrors tricks to help sell it (like Blair Witch did). You can enjoy it even if you haven't ever seen a single online video.

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  9. I am pretty amazed to see that huge monster of the picture.
    Is it from a video game?
    I'd like to defeat it!

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