Review of 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) by Sapient254 — 12 Mar 2016

This was a movie that had so much potential, but fell flat in the end. The characters are all fantastic and there is a constant sense of unease and curiosity that you feel throughout the movie, yet it all comes crashing down in the last 10-15 minutes. I almost feel cheated out of experiencing what could have been a fantastically suspenseful film.

The Good:

- So much about what makes a movie suspenseful is not what you see, but what you don't see. There is a lot of mystery as to whether Goodman's character is just a crazy psychopath, or if he's just a bit of a weirdo that happens to be telling the truth about all the chaos going on outside the bunker.

-John Goodman truly stole the show here. He acted a character that, in one moment seemed to be a kind-hearted and caring person whom you felt compassion for, and in the next he was a raging psychopath which made you want to run and hide away in a corner for fear of your life.

-Mary Elizabeth Winstead's character, Michelle, was well thought out. She wasn't your typical damsel in distress, but she also wasn't your overly used super strong female lead either. She was a bit in between which I found to be more believable and refreshing.

-The cinematography and editing was done very well. The opening scene comes into mind here, in particular. You can't hear anything MIchelle is saying, but you know just about everything that is going on simply by the imagery being presented to you. A phone conversation in which Michelle is clearly upset, to the point of tears, leads to her walking out of the room with her things while the camera pans to a desk with keys and an engagement ring sitting on it. Nothing was spoken, yet you know what just transpired. I love that and wish more movies would take note.

The Bad:

-Throughout the film, Michelle and her supporting partner-in-crime, Emmett devised plans and schemes which, for the life of me, I could not understand why they didn't just do while Howard was asleep.

-They loved to talk so loudly to each other while devising their little escape plans. I felt as though all of these scenes should have had them whispering or writing notes to each other if they truly felt Howard was a threat to their safety and ability to escape the bunker.

-All of the above is nitpicking on an otherwise great film. What really had me cringing, however, was the awful ending to this movie. I felt as though it would have been a perfect movie if it weren't for the out-of-left-field moments being experienced in the final scenes. A good movie makes you think after it's over. A good movie makes you wonder what really happened to the characters. A good movie makes your imagination go crazy trying to answer all the questions it didn't. When a film like this relies so heavily on mystery and the unknown, only to suddenly show all at the very end, it takes away all of that post-movie-going-experience wonder that I enjoy so much.

It's one thing for it to happen to a bad movie, but when it happens to a good movie, it's truly heartbreaking.