Saturday, April 12, 2008

Cloverfield DVD Review

I received my review copy of the Cloverfield DVD, and have finally had the chance to go through and watch everything.

First off, the packing is pretty basic. We've seen this artwork for a while, so it's not too surprising. There was also a "declassified" sticker on the outer shrink-wrap, and a "Project Cloverfield" sticker (seen above) sealing the edge of the DVD case, which also has the mysterious Sword logo on it.

One other thing, the stickers and the cover all contain a different 11-digit number - in this case 11112014349, 11112014265, and 11111012009. It's probably nothing, but worth noting.

Inside the case, there are no inserts, just the DVD. The DVD artwork is pretty plain - the Cloverfield logo on sort of a "weathered" steel look.

The DVD contains the following:
  • The movie - obviously ;) You can watch the movie with a running commentary by Matt Reeves, which I highly recommend if you have already seen the movie a few times.
  • Document 01.18.08: The Making Of Cloverfield - This documentary details the making of the movie, scene-by-scene, and the various locations used.
  • Cloverfield Visual Effects - My favorite bonus feature, this shows all the special effects used throughout the movie.
  • I Saw It! It's Alive! It's Huge! - This feature focuses on the design of Clover and the parasites.
  • Clover Fun - Blooper reel.
  • Deleted Scenes - Four deleted scenes that can be view with or without commentary.
  • Alternate Endings - Two alternate endings that can be view with or without commentary.
  • Previews - Trailers for Star Trek and Indiana Jones.
  • www.CloverfieldFiles.com - This website mentioned on the Special Features menu will likely contain more info on the viral maketing part of Cloverfield, with links to the various websites.

Easter Eggs
(location hidden in black)

  • X Marks The Spot - This Easter Egg shows the subway tunnel parasite scene with Xs instead of parasites, showing how the scene looked before the SFX were added. (You can find this in the Scene Selection menu, just above scene #10)
  • Rack'em & Pack'em - This humorous montage spoofs a scene in the movie with Lt. Col. Graff (played by Chris Mulkey, aka Hank Jennings). "Rack'em and Pack'em, we're phantoms in 15!" (This easter egg can be found on the Setup menu by navigating to the right from the EspaƱol menu option. A helicopter will appear where the head of the Statue of Liberty's head should go.)
  • Supplemental Files - As mentioned previously, there are some pieces from the ARG on the DVD, hidden in a mysterious "Chapter 17". This Supplemental Files section has: four of the Tagruato Chuai station news videos (English, Spanish, French and Japanese), a semi-interactive Slusho page, where you can watch the Slusho! commercial, and four of the Jamie and Teddy videos (#2, 5, 9, & 11). (This Easter egg can be found by waiting 1:17 on the 13-16 Scene Seletion menu, which will cause Chapter 17 to appear.)
There is a lot of great stuff there. The only glaring omission is the Cloverfield trailers are nowhere to be found. There also could be a little more coverage of the ARG, but we'll have to wait and see what turns up on CloverfieldFiles.

Grade: Two Thumbs, Way up!

* Special thanks to Tamar and Scott!

24 comments:

  1. First post?

    I can't wait to get this TERRIBLY! (Except i won't be able to get it because my parents hate this movie)

    Dennis, are there spoilers in these 2 alternate endings??? >.>

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anyone else notice that on the dvd label, the "swirl" on the sword symbol looks a lot like a "6". Could this have something to do with "You can't drink just six"?

    ReplyDelete
  3. How did you get that DVD so early?

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Tyler -

    More Importantly....That the symbol is rotated compared to what it looks like on all the other sites.....odd

    ReplyDelete
  5. I heard that one of the alternate endings is a continued clip of the last scene in the movie. Of course, I can't say anymore about this without spoiling it. But from what I know, all that talk about a rescue crew getting their hands on the camera was indeed true. Though it's very brief so you barely see what happens.

    + + + SPOILER ALERT!
    Beth or Lily screams Rob's name into the camera for about a split second when the camera transitions to the Coney Island footage. Of course in that split second you can see someone staring into the camera obscurred with lots of dust and debris and bright lights.
    + + + SPOILER ALERT!

    ReplyDelete
  6. This quote is from the Cloverfield Kishin 3 talkback...

    "Will said...

    I can't figure this out. Is this before or after the movie? Or is this alternate? I hope not. If this is before the movie, then wouldn't the folks in the states know about it? And if it's after, how did Tagruato get it all the way to Japan? Chained?

    Or I'm very confused. I'm going with the latter.

    Anyways, it looks like the cell thing is a remote controll for the monster, and it's inside the boy. That's why the cult wanted to kill him, to get the cell out of him so they could controll the monster. The boy's dad worked for Tagruato, and his mom was a spy for the cult."

    That would possibly explain the one Happy Talk that says:

    "She's one of them"

    hmmm.... as for the swords on the packaging... I'm still assuming those were all placed on specific places that would tie in to the DVD. If it's on your dvd packaging then it more than likely has to do with the dvd.

    The 22 is taking forever to get here...

    ReplyDelete
  7. If you want to go by pure logic, the fact that these sword symbols appear on a supposed U.S. government "Project Cloverfield" sticker would seem to indicate that the sword is a governmental symbol. That doesn't really coincide very well with it being placed on the other ARG websites, though.

    ReplyDelete
  8. does anyone else notice that the sticker says "project" cloverfield. usually, it would be something like "case: cloverfield". if it's a project, could that mean the government has something to do with it?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ok, has anyone noticed that the symbol on the sticker is UPSIDE DOWN!? The number on the top I upside down as well. It could be that way because the sticker raps around from the cover to the back, but idk.

    Pinkhamster said… “If you want to go by pure logic, the fact that these sword symbols appear on a supposed U.S. government "Project Cloverfield" sticker would seem to indicate that the sword is a governmental symbol. That doesn't really coincide very well with it being placed on the other ARG websites, though.”

    Now that was clever to think that and if the symbol is from the US Government, they could be putting it on the sites to try and cover up the attack. Or they are marking the sites that have anything to do with the attack on New York so they can peace everything together. Isn’t that what the movie was about? The Government finding the camera and they watch to try to analyzed on what the monster is? Well, that’s my opinion.

    ReplyDelete
  10. so whats the difference between this dvd and the 2 disc special edition?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Also, has anyone else noticed that the same symbol appears on the Tagruato website? I found that it only appears on the "About Us" page and the "Deep Sea Drilling" page next to the subject title. I'm not sure what one can deduce from that, but somehow if it appears on the Tagruato website, I'm inclined to believe that any viral information contained within the DVD can't be trusted 100%.

    ReplyDelete
  12. So which version contains Case Designated: Cloverfield?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Looking at the end credits, you can see hidden words and images ... One of them is September 10, 1969.

    A brief search led me to this:
    AD0860577

    Others have noticed this, also.

    ReplyDelete
  14. The steel cover version is CASE DESIGNATE - CLOVERFIELD

    ReplyDelete
  15. I cannot, for the life of me, find those hidden menus. Where are they at? Are the under one of the sub-menus of the main one, or what. The selector just goes to the ones I already can see. I research the net (a little anyways). It's annoying.

    ReplyDelete
  16. OK, I did a search on September 10, 1969. Turns out it's JONATHON SCHAECH's birthday. He happens to be starring in a movie called Quaratine ... if you read the plot summary, there is something eirely familiar ... probably just a coincidence, but it did make me go "hmmm ..."

    ReplyDelete
  17. Quarantine? That's what people have been linking the 'Aladygma' site with, which was similarly thought to be Cloverfield 2... Interesting...
    J.J. Abrams is a master at cryptic stuff....

    ReplyDelete
  18. Student Thomas said... Quarantine? That's what people have been linking the 'Aladygma' site with, which was similarly thought to be Cloverfield 2... Interesting... J.J. Abrams is a master at cryptic stuff....

    Quarantine has NOTHING to do with JJ Abrams. It is a remake of a Spanish film called REC.

    No one knows what Aladygma is for, but I see no reason to believe it has anything to do with Cloverfield.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I read up on Quarantine before I posted. It was just given the style of camera work from Cloverfield and the plot summary from Quarantine, ... well, it was just an erie coincidence. Probably nothing more ...

    Probably ...

    Oh, and when you watch the clip about the parasites and JJ talk about how horrifying viruses are ...

    Good thing I believe in Karma, not Coincidence ...

    ReplyDelete
  20. I just watched the special feature that showed the subway attack scene and on two occurences (when Hud is being attacked by a parasite and when they are runnig into the employee room with the vending machines) where there are letters or words in the green X's and I don't know if it has to do something with the CG or if it's yet another secret.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I saw that too, but I'm pretty sure it says "Paramount Do Not Duplicate"

    ReplyDelete
  22. The Col Graff Easter egg isnt in the UK DVD, but all the others EEggs are, unless im doing it wrong.

    There is no Espaniol menu in the |UK version.

    ReplyDelete
  23. the black symbol on the sticker is also on the slusho website on the main page on the upper left corner. the sticker was made to fold on the case so the sword handle is supposed to be on top with a 9 instead of 6

    ReplyDelete
  24. September 10, 1969 was the date that the US Military exploded an Atomic bomb in Colorado. I think that's the intended reference.

    ReplyDelete