Better as a thriller than a sci fi

Rating: 5/10 (14 June 2016)

Just to clarify, I watched this movie without knowing it was a spiritual sequel to Cloverfield.
Anyway, the majority of the movie isn't at all sci-fi but rather a claustrophobic, psychological thriller. And a quite good one at that. The acting and characters are well fleshed out and are believable and likable. Despite the confined space the story engages and always seems bigger then the setting. The plot twists and turns but never in a way that seems contrived and as a viewer you're always guessing and never knowing what's real and what isn't
I found myself quite engaged in the plot and characters. Emmet is quite likable and given just enough back-story to be made human and worth caring about. The writing makes you really care about him and paints him out as a really nice guy which is why his death makes so much more of an impact. Howard morphs from psychopath to teddy bear right back to psychopath seamlessly and Michelle works just fine for most of the film. So approaching the end I was positively surprised and in my head starting to think it was a solid 8/10 or even a 9/10 film.
That was before the rather disappointing and over-done ending that kind of spoiled it for me. I guess they felt they had to include more references to the original Cloverfield but I really think the movie suffers from it. The transition from psychological thriller to action sic-fi is about as subtle as a kick in the nuts. So suddenly our protagonist Michelle turns into Rambo and blows up an alien ship with a molotov cocktail and then goes off to join the resistance.
A shame really because the first 95% of the movie is really solid and stands on its own without any references to Cloverfield. With a little more subtlety when wrapping the film up it could have been truly great.