5 Ways To Approach A Cloverfield Sequel

3. More Grit, More Realism

As I've written above, the film was obviously going for a more down-to-Earth experience than what we ultimately got. It's an admirable attempt, even if it still feels like a more pedestrian romantic-horror film than anything else, but that's not to say that it can't be improved upon. The general definition is the expansion of something that had been established in prior instalments, and this can most certainly be the case with Cloverfield 2. While the first film set the tone, as well as established the universe (or, at least, the marketing did, that is), a follow-up can kick everything up a notch. While it's obvious that the whole "grittier is better" approach has become somewhat over-utilised in films these days, leaving very little in the way of fun-loving adventure films like Indiana Jones, the former would definitely fit the Cloverfield franchise like a glove, considering the more human aspects that the original had tried to put in the forefront of the story. While humour isn't completely out of the question, when shit gets going, it had better hit the audience hard. I'm not saying that a hard-R rating would be necessary (Nolan's Batman films have already proven that a PG-13 movie can be just as powerful an experience as any R-rated movie), but this is a film about survival, and things could easily get messy rather quickly. Lines like " was eating people" have left a great impression on my psyche, not just because of the way it was delivered (the character has clearly been scarred by what she's seen), but also the fact that we didn't see the act being committed by the monster. It's completely left up to the viewer's imagination, and that sums up the focus of the film: the humans. Essentially, putting too much focus on the creature could really take away from that dramatic, realistic tone. Giving the monster more screen time isn't out of the question, but the linchpin of the series is the human characters. The filmmakers have to remember that, while they were inspired by Godzilla, they shouldn't simply rehash what we've seen in that franchise. This is a disaster movie that establishes a monster attack as a tragedy akin to 9/11, not a cartoon about a 300-foot tall dragon and his parasitic buddies having a tiff with the big bad American military. As such, we should see the turmoil that our protagonists are going through, along with the effects that the monster's presence has had on the population in general, like civilians fighting over materials for their own survival, or even using the attack as an excuse to let loose on some horrible inhibitions. I realize that Cloverfield is still a giant monster movie, and not exactly what you would define as social commentary, but such acts as the ones that I just described were at least mentioned in passing, so it wouldn't feel totally out of place in the series.