BY GABI HUTSON
[email protected]
The spiritual successor to Cloverfield, 10 Cloverfield Lane, upholds the intensity of its predecessor – to an extent.
Technically, it’s a sequel to the 2008 sci-fi flick Cloverfield, but it is more of a “spiritual sequel,” which is a new addition to the franchise but it does not add to or continue the story. This movie is intense but not in a way that makes the movie some grand, edge-of-your-seat thriller.
I had a small bit of anxiety for the first couple of minutes because of the moments of high anticipation. It’s more intense in the way it utilizes eery music to make you high strung while you wait for something very abrupt to happen. Mostly there was very many loud, sudden noises that made me jump a little bit out of my seat. Most of them are just false alarms though as nothing too dramatic or scary happens.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead was phenomenal in her performance of the movies heroine, Michelle. She was marvelous as the badass leading female who new exactly what to do and when to do it, I must say that I do adore strong women in thriller movies. John Gallagher JR. also did a fantastic job in his part of Michelle’s bunk(er) mate, Emmit. He adds the perfect amount of comic relief when it is needed and is partly what makes the movie. Afterall, I do believe that any movie needs a mix of an opposing genre in it to make it good. John Goodman does as well as he always does; playing a dominating man with a short temper suits him well.
The cast altogether was extraordinary in their parts and worked well together. The movie is good and keeps you interested, however I feel that director J.J. Abrams maybe got a bit lazy with this movie. I don’t blame him for this as he was making Star Wars: The Force Awakens around the same time. Anyone would probably lag on their other projects if they had such an ambitious venture at hand.
I would say, though, that the only part about the movie that I felt was a bit drawn out was the ending, which is deplorable since the movie was good and kept me attentive up until it’s last few moments. It feels as if it was cheap in a sense; it was like Abrams tried to throw a curveball that flew straight into the dirt. I suppose the ending wasn’t what I was thinking but it’s not like I couldn’t have guessed it.
Another issue I had was with a subplot that was started but never finished. I think I had more questions about that than anything else in the movie. It’s easy to assume how the subplot ended, but I didn’t particularly like that I was never given a straightforward or an absolute answer. Despite it’s last disappointing moments and the inconclusive subplot the movie was pretty good and did live up to the expectations Abrams has set for himself in the sci-fi genre and the cast did great with carrying out the script.
