So-So even without the questionable ending

Rating: Null/10 (18 March 2016)

To discuss 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE without referencing the ending is high near impossible. Suffice it to say for now that the title is a giveaway, and that the finished movie is the result of an original screenplay that has been re-engineered to shoe-horn into an existing franchise. How one feels about that seems to be topic A when discussing it.
But, CLOVERFIELD has a number of other issues apart from it's fractured narrative. The whole set-up itself simply comes off as an extended episode of The Twilight Zone - and, a not especially exceptional or original one at that. It's essentially yet another take on a Bomb Shelter/Last Persons On Earth yarn. Further, it echoes the Tim Robbins sequence in Spielberg's WAR OF THE WORLDS. The acting is good, particularly by John Goodman, there are some nice details and a decent enough twist (not the ending, but within the shelter storyline), but they simply aren't enough to sustain interest for a full length feature. By the time we get to the questionable questionable one can't help but look back and ask what was the point of the whole enterprise? The main body of the movie bears precious little impact on what comes next, and that "twist" comes off as a red herring signifying little beyond a feeling of distaste.
Forging ahead carefully about the ending. If the online stories are true about the original ending, I would say that it was better - but, not enough to make the movie actually that much more so. At least it retains the mystery of what happened and plays into the fatalistic tone of the earlier section. The released version certainly is more action-packed, and, yes, does tie-in to it's predecessor - but, makes the main body of the picture even less connected to the overall scheme of things. 90% of the movie seems like a prelude to get to the real tale. A Twilight Zone-like twist without the skill of execution of the best of that TV series.
P.S. Why is it that these end of the world 3-ways always seem to be two guys a girl? Kinky writers?