What it was vs. What could have been

Rating: 7/10 (15 April 2016)

I just arrived from the cinema and decided to make a review out of this one, since I can't relate to any I've read and felt like expressing my opinion. Please note, that this may contain spoilers. To get to the point, I loved this movie...until the last 20 minutes, or so, kicked in. I felt gutted as I walked out. To me it almost felt like the writers suddenly remembered "Oh, we almost forgot this is a sci-fi, alien flick" and wrote the ending with that in mind. I wish they had forgot. This movie starts of with a very interesting pace, leaving you clueless to what is exactly going on. Found it very interesting that it never bored me, even when your cast is pretty much 3 actors and over 1 hour of the film is filmed in a confined space. The whole plot started with a bang. Locked in a bunker, creepy old man tells you this unbelievable tale of nuclear/chemical/martian attack. Everyone is dead. Except the three in the bunker. Can Michelle believe Howard? What is going on? All of sudden we are in a mystery, what is out there and what happened to Howard's daughter? After further discoveries, you get eager. Is Howard a crazy survivalist murderer lunatic? ... And then... when you are at the edge of your seat, palpable tension... Michelle escaping in a crazy delightful sequence, to only destroy the movie when she gets outside. You never know what Howard's true intentions were, you don't get to know what happened to his "daughter". You get Michelle destroying a gigantic monster, that is about to swallow a whole car, but is taken down by a molotov, that Michelle had more than enough time to craft whilst the monster is raising the car?!! And the final decision, felt out of place. All in all, This movie failed to deliver a true climatic finish, maybe drop the aliens and stick to the more realistic kidnap, and murder plot. John Goodman's performance didn't deserve an ending written in 10 minutes on a notepad on top of your knees. This is MY OPINION. Take it with a grain of salt, and form your own. Thank you.