Brilliant movie until the final 15 minutes where it takes a massive nose dive.

Rating: 7/10 (13 September 2016)

Now, I knew going into this that it wasn't in the same ball park as the 2008 movie Cloverfield. I was aware of the basic plot but I had stayed clear of trailers and reviews before viewing it as I didn't want to ruin my viewing experience. It was painfully obvious that before I watched the movie it was going to have an alien/monster aspect. The fact that is is named Cloverfield and that I saw a movie poster of the house glowing like a spaceship pretty much confirmed to me, before viewing that there was to be some form of sci-fi element outside of the bunker. And when a movie spends most of its energy keeping you guessing to whether the outside world is infected, when its glaringly obvious (off my two previous points alone) that it actually will be, is a whopping plot hole in my personal opinion.
The lead character Michelle is in a car crash, she awakes in a cell, chained to the wall by a mysterious man, Howard (played perfectly by John Goodman). He tells her that he found her and rescued her by taking her down into a bunker under his farmhouse as the outside world above ground level is toxic and it could take years to become safe for them to leave. It is obvious now that the vat majority of this movie is to be played out in the confined space of the underground bunker, filmed over 4 or 5 rooms, it has a dark, claustrophobic, tense feel to it. Bottled-up environments require good acting to make them work, if you are restricted to 3 characters for 90 minutes in a dialogue driven movie then the acting has to be top notch and convincing. And in 10 Cloverfield Lane, it was just that. The acting was very, very good, especially from John Goodman. He portrayed his character effortlessly, portraying a man who wasn't black or white, he was mysterious, compelling and awkward. He could take you from thinking he was an honest man, to thinking he is a psycho murderer within a matter of seconds. Without his presence, 10 Cloverfield Lane wouldn't have been half as effective.
Throughout the movie we are kept guessing if Howard is a good guy or a bad guy. The plot shifts several times, one minute making you think that he is a genuine, honest man to then making you feel as if he is a psychopath, hiding a haunting past. This was interesting and I was very emerged into this aspect of the movie. He swore by the theory that the outside air was contaminated and he kept his prisoners there for their own safety and you were guessing whether this was genuine or if he was simply brainwashing them with fear tactics.
In the end we aren't given the full backstory to Howards life, but enough evidence is there to point to the fact he was deranged. My theory is that his Wife/Daughter left him, he kidnapped the missing school girl and likely resulted in killing her through his depressed psychotic personality. He killed the other main character in the show, having a barrel of acid already prepared to dispose of the body and he had spent years building a bunker below his house for the possibility of an 'alien invasion' (or was it just a chamber where he kept and tortured people?). Either way, all the facts point at Howard being a unhinged, murdering mad man.
Making a safety suit out of a shower curtain, half a Coca Cola bottle and some duct tape, in order to try and escape is simply ridiculous. Surely attack Howard first, then proceed to make your homemade suit would have been a more conventional way of doing things? Rather than trying to hide it from him? Bizarre storytelling to say the least.
Ultimately, 10 Cloverfield Lane was a claustrophobic, well-acted, dialogue driven thriller which was played out very well until the final 15 minutes or so.
Now, where to begin, trying to summarise this abomination of an ending?
1 – The film was well paced and constructed perfectly, offering a really tense viewing with some scenes having an uneasy feel. This was ruined the second she was out of the bunker as it took a complete U-Turn going from 0 - Hollywood in a matter of seconds.
2- As I said earlier, I was expecting some Alien element outside of the bunker, with it being something I was expecting, I wouldn't have been completely against it, however the way in which it was executed was so poor that it just ruined the entire movie. If the aliens had been subtle and attacked with some better directing it could have been saved slightly.
3 – Killing the 'alien' with a conveniently accessible cocktail Molotov, made of a magazine and a wine bottle, by being perfectly able to throw it into its open mouth whilst being dragged up towards it whilst in the seat of a car is just too much for me, I'm sorry.
4 – To finally escape and hear on the radio that survivors must head to Chicago, conveniently as she is driving past a road sign (in the middle of nowhere) that points towards Chicago, is again downright laughable and lazy.
Ultimately it is a shame that the movie fell apart so quickly in the last 15 minutes, prior to the end scene I would have given it an 8/10 or even a 9/10 for the great scenes, acting and storytelling in the bunker. However due to the horrifically poor ending I will give it a 7/10 and I think that may be a little generous.