Cannot understand the rave reviews

Rating: 2/10 (3 September 2016)

Review contains spoilers. I was excited about watching this film after reading the first few rave reviews on this website. I was expecting a thriller with a subtle nod to its predecessor, Cloverfield. I was left disappointed however, as nothing about 10 Cloverfield Lane is subtle. The film begins by introducing us to Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who seems upset and has had a fight with her boyfriend. That is as much insight into her character as we get. The same can be said about Howard (the nutcase who owns the bunker) and Emmett (a seemingly pointless character who's only purpose was to die towards the end). I started to enjoy the film when it was revealed Howard had seemingly been responsible for the kidnap of a local girl and I was looking forward to finding out more about his dark nature. His character is good and Goodmans acting is spot on. You can't tell if he's right about the outside being poisonous or just crazy. Either way he's creepy and unlikeable, but in a way that's good for the film. The film just didn't really go anywhere though and I felt like his character never got the chance to unravel. Howard was a bad man but we don't find out why or what he did exactly. We don't find out what it is he wants with Michelle. He just presumably dies during Michelle's escape when the bunker explodes and all of a sudden we're abruptly shoved into the middle of an alien horror movie. This is where I lost it. There was no serious suggestion during the previous 1 hour 20 minutes of the film that the earth has been attacked by aliens. It was not even suggested that is what had happened in the original Cloverfield film. However, it turns out that is what has happened and the audience is supposed to just accept it. Michelle single-handly takes on a giant alien space craft with a single Molotov cocktail and wins. Then she drives off to help others and the film ends. The abrupt tradition from psychological thriller to alien horror in the last 15 minutes of the film was just not for me at all. it was a film that forced me to make my own assumptions all the way through because it never really went anywhere or presented any facts, which left me feeling cheated at the end.