Super 8 vs. Cloverfield

5 comments

5 comments

In terms of the viral impact these movies caused when their first trailers played in front of popular movies (Cloverfield in front of Transformers and Super 8 in front of Iron Man 2), they peaked our interest and made us beg for more. The question remained: Which one was the better movie? Cloverfield was a purely fun and suspenseful monster movie that took the form that made The Blair Witch Project such a phenomenon and made it even better. However, it lacked in good character development and could've been even more, but the ballsy ending still remains quite a shocker. Super 8, on the other hand, resonated so much more, with memorable characters, memorable dialogue and situations, and made me want to go back again and again (which I actually did do last summer). Super 8 is the winner by a wide margin!

I think Cloverfield gets too much of a bad rap. It's a good film, and I thought it was really entertaining. But, Super 8 is better.

While Abrams has his style stamped on both films I think Super 8 had more of a fleshed out story which helped make such a great film. Cloverfield had it's charm because the audience was thrown straight into the chaos just as the characters, in terms on entertainment and re-watching I'd say Super 8 tips it. Both great films overall

JRM
JRM

They're both very good. I think I'll vote for Super 8.

i like both of these movies equally but i think Super 8 just a tad more. Its beautifully shot even with all the damn lens flares . Its a very nostalgic pulpy adventure movie to me .

Super 8 was horrible. Cloverfield was average at best. Average > Horrible. Thus, Cloverfield wins.

Cloverfield is all style little substance. At first the shaking camera looks nice and realistic, but towards the end of the movie things gets a little too chaotic for me. Super 8 is an amazing film, one that succesfully combines the kids adventure genre, with the alien invasion theme. The result is something that should not work, but it does.

Cloverfield. It felt slightly unique. Super 8 was good...but it was by the numbers....

Is it just me or did the creature from Super 8 look like the Cloverfield monster had a one night stand with E.T.? Mind you, that could just have easily been the premise for the movie! Cloverfield was memorable enough for its viral marketing and visceral action/horror set pieces and I understand the rationale behind the visual style (Blair Witch meets Godzilla) even if relying heavily on 9/11 imagery for action/disaster movies is getting more trite and exploitative than it is resonant or poignant. But Super 8 managed to be equally as invigorating and even more entertaining due to one simple advantage over Cloverfield; the presence of likeable, identifiable characters. Even though it verged on mushy sentimentality more than a few times and a few of the child actors' lines fell flat, the performances really helped to carry the emotional core of the film and make the film seem more like a labour of love than just another monster film. Cloverfield failed spectacularly in that respect. So for that reason, Super 8 wins.

Super 8 gets my vote. But Cloverfield is a fucking awesome movie though.