Cloverfield’s success, or why there’s hope for Lost
By fred | January 31, 2008
You have heard about Cloverfield. I know you have, because everyone has. Cloverfield is the latest film from Lost co-creator JJ Abrams. Well, actually no, it isn’t a JJ Abrams movie, Matt Reeves is the one who directed this movie, despite all the promos using (mostly) JJ Abrams’ name.
And I know that trying to see some connections between this movie and ABC hit-drama Lost, is pretty dull. Obviously those are two independent and unrelated things, that have nothing in common. Nothing but the fact that they share some creative minds, since Lost co-creator, writer and executive producer JJ Abrams is indeed a producer on Cloverfield, as well as being involved in the writing of the movie, signed by friend & Lost writer Drew Goddard.
Not only that, but much like the hit TV show, the movie was promoted with one main thing in mind : mystery. Yes, it’s about some “monster” or something, destroying Net-York City and killing everything, but you don’t know what that thing is. And that’s what it’s all about, there’s this big secret, this mystery, and this incredible hype that’s been build up about it, and when it’s time to deliver the main basic question is this this one : Will it live up to the hype, will it be good, or a huge disappointment ?
Sounds familiar ?
Because while there are hundreds of questions, if not more, regarding Lost, in the end it will all come down on one simple question, and that question won’t be “what’s the Island?” or anything like that, no in the end it won’t be about anything specific, it will be the same question : Will the show live up to all the hype, tension and mystery build up over the years, will it be great and please fans, or will it be a huge let down ? Will we like it, love it, or hate it ?
See, in the end both projects, while unrelated, are about the same thing, and because they both share the same creative minds (although obviously there are people working on Lost who had nothing to do with Cloverfield), and because there’s been this incredible hype about them, and because some big names like JJ Abrams’ have been so widely associated with both, despite the lack of any “real” reasoning for it, it’s not hard to see why one could use those similarities to justify their judgment on how Lost will end, based on how Cloverfield did.
It’s easy to imagine that should people be (incredibly) disappointed in the movie, they would react by thinking that if that’s what they had in store for a movie, which could be entirely made & written before hand, if they couldn’t do better than that on that project, chances are Lost will be even worst, that its ending won’t provide any sense of closure or explanation or nothing that could satisfy the fans of the show.
On the other hand, should people be blown away, or simply really satisfied with the movie, it could reinforce their belief in the creative minds behind it and their ability to deliver the goods when all eyes and pressure are on them, and it would of course be applied to Lost, it would have people regain faith, or have their faith grew stronger, that they will come up with something great for Lost, and that it will live up to all the hype build up year after year, season after season.
So now, to get an idea on how Lost could do in the future, an idea based on, we all agree, something worth peanut, we have to turn to Cloverfield. Everyone will be able to see it and make up their own mind about it, but as far as I’m concerned I saw it, and based on that I’d say Lost will be the best damned thing we’ve ever seen on television, at best.
I’m not saying the movie was the best movie ever, or even the best movie of the year, and I don’t intend to reveal any spoiler here, but let me say this : it was totally worth it, it does live up to the hype, there’s no question about it. The minds behind this movie, those who made it knew exactly what people would be expecting when they where to sat and watch it, they knew what the promo would be like, they knew what all the generated hype would be it, and they went right for it.
They didn’t waste time, they didn’t try to escape or anything, there’s been some impressive hype created over the movie, and an incredible buzz regarding whatever “monster” was decapitating the Statue of Liberty and trashing NYC, they knew it was “that” that people were willing to find out about when coming in, and they went for it, they really did and were not shy about it.
Of course, that doesn’t actually mean anything for Lost. Because you don’t construct a TV show like you do a movie, because the men behind the curtain of Lost aren’t the same that for Cloverfield, and just because one was good doesn’t mean nothing about the other one, but still, somewhere inside you, even if you don’t admit it, it’s a good sign. Not as good as last season’s finale was, but still a good indication that they are able to get it done, give the people what they want, even when all the pressure is on them.
So now, it’s with an even stronger will to be blown away that we get ready to enter the fourth season on Lost. Well, only the first half of the season, actually… Anyway, it starts tonight at 9.00 on ABC.
