10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

My Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

Budget: $15 M, Box office gross: $110.2 M USD

Brief Summary (spoilers): This movie starts with Michelle, the main character, driving. She had just been on the phone with her boyfriend after the two got into an argument. As she’s driving in a rural part of town, she glances down at her phone. Just as she is distracted, a truck slams into her car which causes her to spin out of control and roll into a ditch. Michelle wakes up to find that she’s been chained to a pipe with an IV attached to her in an unrecognizable basement. After a while of her being in the room, a man enters named Howard. He claims that he saved her life and that in the outside world, there’s been an attack, killing many people. As he explains this to Michelle, he talks about how the air is unbreathable outside. Michelle, in disbelief, attempts many times to escape from the bunker that her, Howard, and a man named Emmett are stuck in. She’s further distrusting of Howard as she realizes that his truck is the one that hit her before she crashed. After witnessing how manipulative and evil Howard is, Michelle makes another attempt to escape, this time making it out of the bunker and killing Howard in the process. When Michelle escapes, she realizes the mistake that she has made. There is some type of alien creature in the sky, releasing toxic fumes into the air.

Opinion: I really enjoyed this movie up until the end. I loved the idea of her living with some total psycho, especially since the movie points so many signs to Howard being a dangerous man. However, at the end when there really are aliens invading Earth, it definitely ruined the movie for me. I think for the movie to get the effect that it was trying for, they should have either put more details into revealing the things Michelle didn’t see, like the alien creatures, and shown the viewer more of the outside world. The sci-fi elements of the movie, unfortunately, just weren’t that great. Overall, the movie felt like it was trying too hard, and there were too many things going on which muddled the plot. Aside from the ending scene though, I really did enjoy the movie. There was good character development, and Emmitt was a totally lovable character. I would definitely recommend the movie if you haven’t seen it!!