Could have been so much better.

Rating: 6/10 (13 March 2016)

(Some spoilers included)
I went to see 10 Cloverfield Lane after reading a tweet from the great Stephen King, who expressed his love for this film on Twitter. I didn't read any reviews before going because I felt that didn't need to;--after all, the master of horror said he enjoyed it and so it had to be worth the nine bucks right?. Well, after leaving the theater, I was a bit disappointed and wished I would've waited for the rental. If King happened to like the film, it's probably because 10 Cloverfield Lane borrows heavily from Mr. King's own stories, including "Misery" and "The Mist."
However, unlike those two masterpieces, 10 Cloverfield lane was a bit anti-climatic, because I never cared for any of the characters. And the ending wasn't as ambiguous as I was hoping it would be. I was hoping for an ending like in the movie, "The Mist," a film that I re-watched a dozen times searching for clues that would lead to a definitive answer. 10 Cloverfield Lane gives you no food for thought, and leaves nothing open to interpretation for the viewer's imagination.
On the bright side, most of the film was absolutely thrilling to say the least. John Goodman gives a memorable performance and I found myself liking him and hating him at certain points in the story. The other leads were okay, but lacked urgency in many scenes. The story-telling was brilliant for the most part, doing an excellent job at misdirection, raising many questions, and making me guess a whole lot, but I wouldn't say this story had any major plot twists like you'd get in an M. Night Shyamalan or Hitchcock story.
I expected that the writers of this film were taking a page from greats such as Hitchcock, Serling, Shyamalan, and King, but they only tried to. This film is just short of great, but I find it hard to call it a waste of time. Like I said, I did love the performance by Goodman, and I was intrigued for most of the film;--but only to be let down in the end.
6/10. I enjoyed most of it, but I don't think I'll watch for a 2nd time.