10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) Review

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

Directed by Dan Trachtenberg

Produced by J. J. Abrams & Lindsey Weber

Starring: John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Gallagher Jr

Plot Synopsis: (via IMDB)
After getting in a car accident, a woman is held in a shelter with two men, who claim the outside world is affected by a widespread chemical attack.

My Opinion:

Well, THIS was certainly an interesting one…

I usually like to write a review at least a couple of days after seeing something since, sometimes, I’m not quite sure how I feel about a movie. More often than not, they actually go up a little in my estimation (I ended up liking The Good, The Bad And The Ugly way more by the time I got around to reviewing it. I’m glad I didn’t review it immediately after seeing it). Well, I watched 10 Cloverfield Lane a few hours ago & I’m still trying to make my mind up on how I feel about it. I’ll say that my husband & I seem to disagree on it, which is unusual. I think I liked it quite a bit more than he did. At least, I think I liked it…

First of all, I’ll say that I really liked the first Cloverfield a lot. Okay – these movies are impossible to talk about without spoilers if you somehow know nothing whatsoever about them. If that’s the case, it’s probably best to skip my review. It occurred to me that some bloggers were actually a little too young for the first one when it came out. Oh MAN…. That’s depressing. So, therefore, some are watching this movie with zero idea of what it’s about. I think that’s the absolute best way to see & enjoy this one. Trust me – if you’re in the dark, stay that way.

While discussing this movie with the hubby, I realized what a big part of the problem with it is: It should have been the first film. SPOILERS BELOW if you haven’t seen it:
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Think about it! If the word “Cloverfield” wasn’t associated with “monster movie” because of the first film, this one could have been marketed as the movie it is in the beginning and then BAM! It would have gone all From Dusk Til Dawn on our asses! I’d have loved that. Then, if the first film was actually the second film, it would have carried things on in just the right way & I know I’d be a bigger fan of the overall Cloverfield thing as a whole right now. Instead, this movie ended in the way we were all expecting from the start if we’d seen the first film. And I imagine that those wanting a straight-up monster movie were probably quite disappointed to get something entirely different for three quarters of it.

Personally, I was a fan of the “two movies for the price of one” thing. Not everyone will be, I’m sure. I got the impression that the audience I saw this with were overall quite confused. And the hubby won’t like me saying this as he thinks I always misquote him but, screw it – He actually compared the ending to Skyline. Skyline!!! Have any of you seen that? If you haven’t, DON’T! It’s an enormous pile of shit with the worst movie ending in recent memory. That’s a huge insult to this movie! But, dammit, I can see why he made that comparison. Damn him. That’s ruined this movie for me a little. I should stop going to movies with that guy! But he’s my ride, so…. 😉 He also compared it to Signs, which isn’t quite as bad. It has a definite Signs vibe but M Night Shyamalan isn’t loved by everyone and I think the same people who really hate his stuff also won’t like 10 Cloverfield Lane.

I do like Mary Elizabeth Winstead. I enjoyed her performance and cared about her character. I can’t say I really connected with the two men, though. I didn’t think the characters were as well developed as they should’ve been considering how long we spend with them trapped underground. And. Um. Hmm. Yeah, I don’t know what else to say and when I get that way I tend to ramble on without making any sort of point. I think I’d rather just stop writing about this movie and instead discuss it with you guys in the comments. It’s a good one for discussion!

I’ll just end with this: If I’ve read things right, the plan is to sort of use the “Cloverfield” name to make a series of unrelated films with strange & interesting stories in the same way the name “The Twilight Zone” was used for a series of bizarre stories. That is something that very much has my interest as I think the original Twilight Zone was the best series of stories EVER. If they do that, it could end up like The Twilight Zone did: 90% utterly brilliant stories with 10% that were real stinkers. Some will see 10 Cloverfield Lane as one of the stinkers. If this plan happens and we have ten Cloverfield movies years from now, I’d be very interested to look back on them all to see where this one ranks for me. If there are enough utterly brilliant ones, I think I’d end up actually appreciating this one a little bit more as well. Let’s see where they go with these!

My Rating: 7/10