This movie infuriated me - but not for the reasons you might think!

Rating: 3/10 (19 March 2016)

*Spoilers further ahead so read at your own risk!* I just got out of the cinema after catching the late show of this film on a Saturday night. Now, let me just start off by saying that I have walked out of movies I hated before, sat through movies I hated right until the very end, and movies I absolutely praised to the heavens (I think all of us have been in all of these 3 categories at least once in our lives when it comes to movies).
However, a fourth category has now emerged for me and reared its ugly head - and it is perhaps the worst one of them all! When it comes to "10 Cloverfield Lane", this was the very first time I've EVER sat through a movie for its near-2 hour running time, in complete tension and suspense, only for the last 30 minutes to come unhinged so abruptly and vapidly.
Why were so many plot elements introduced throughout the film if absolutely none (and I mean NONE) of them were addressed? This is the problem with filmmakers nowadays - many of them have the ability and talent to showcase excellent traits of a movie, such as atmosphere or good casting choices (as is the case with this movie. More on that later). But none of them have the ability to tie it all together into a cohesive story. Boring and incomprehensible are two things this movie is NOT, but that still doesn't mask the fact that the filmmaker had no idea where he was going with this, and that's very clear from the outset.
Comedy was interspersed throughout the film in little sprinkles, but none of it manifested into anything remotely humorous, given the circumstances. Many films work under the pretense of adding a black comedy component, but it simply doesn't work here.
And then we get the absolute worst ending I've ever seen - what were we supposed to take away from this? That our female heroine suddenly has "combat skills" and "medical expertise" just because she can crawl through a tiny ventilation system and treat a cut with stitches? Is it supposed to be a rush of sudden girl power? GIVE ME A BREAK! The main protagonist wasn't even the least bit likable, which slightly alienated me from the start. What was the point of the subplot having to do with Michelle's husband calling her repeatedly before the events of the film? Or the one about Howard's-daughter-Megan-that-turned-out-not-to-be-his-real-daughter? Or something like that.
Do any of these things really matter anyway? Nope, because none of them were addressed! And this is what I'm talking about when I say that there was no semblance of a cohesive story. There wee very trace amounts of character depth or perception illustrated here - just a case of more questions being asked than answered, followed by a hallmark of trite clichés to wrap things up before the culmination of the 103 minute runtime. And then.... aliens????? REALLY???
Now, for the one big positive about this film - John Goodman's performance. He didn't fail to impress here, as per usual, but with a script this lackluster not even his overpowering tour-de-force can save this one. I wish that were the case, though.