MovieChat Forums > 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) Discussion > Liked it, don't like the cash grab

Liked it, don't like the cash grab


Thought it was a good movie but I was reading where it had a different title and jj Abrams or someone at his studio said they thought it had cloverfield themes and changed the title. To me that's BS, they knew that if they threw cloverfield in there in any way it would be popular.

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I agree. I liked the movie but it's kind of annoying that they had to twist it into a Cloverfield sequel when it has no connection whatsoever. I mean the only thing they have in common are alien monsters and even those have no obvious connection. Well there's the "Cloverfield" connection too I guess but that doesn't even make any sense. I mean in the original it's the military's code name for the creature and here it's the name of a street? Huh?

I'd have bought it more if there was even one line of dialogue referencing the events of the first movie. It can't have been that hard right? When Howard is telling Michelle about the attacks she could have asked something like "Does this have anything to do with that thing in New York?"

Well, whatever, maybe it will all make sense in the next sequel/non-sequel?

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I may be a tiny chimney-sweep but I've got an enormous brush.

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I guess the power of the title (not just as a cash grab) is that it lets you as the audience know that the aliens are real and that the attack is real.

I think that knowing that the attack is real adds more tension to the film. If you think about it from Michelle's point of view, of course she doesn't believe aliens are attacking. If you woke up chained to a wall and someone told you there had been an attack (alien, chemical), you'd probably think it was BS, too.

But by having the word "Cloverfield" in the title, you know the aliens are real. As an audience member, that made me conflicted. If I knew the attack wasn't real (or strongly suspected it wasn't real), I'd be 100% rooting for Michelle to bash Howard over the head and run for it. But because I know that the attack is real, I also know that if Michelle escapes she might be going out of the frying pan and into the fire.

So to me, the title has some value because it raises the stakes of the movie and makes me more conflicted about what I want to see happen. Michelle escaping no longer becomes my ideal ending because I know she might end up in more danger than what she faced in the bunker.

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