Slow paced mystery thriller with some sci-fi thrown in for marketing purposes

Rating: 7/10 (7 May 2016)

Some parts of the movie were great, some not so much. An unevenly good film with a great concept, good acting but some pacing problems. Since the whole idea of the film was to watch it without knowing anything about its story or concept, I suggest you do just that before you read any reviews.
That being said, John Goodman was perfect for his role. He was equal parts a lovable teddy bear (check out the scene when he put on some music - LOL) and a really creepy crazy person. The other actors were OK, but I wouldn't call their performances great. The story is taking people you know nothing about and putting them in a situation where reality cannot be verified. When someone says or does something, you wonder if they are crazy or they are actually for real.
In effect, the result is a slow paced character piece. It is not about sci-fi and it is not about what the hell is going on - even if you wonder about that the whole movie. It is about the people. However, since nothing is revealed until the end of the film and since you know nothing of the people to start with, it is very difficult to empathize with any of them, therefore it all feels like a too long escape from a room type of a game.
The ending is just something that artificially connects this film with Cloverfield and tries to add the sci-fi tag to it. It makes little sense and in fact it is the reason why I only rated this movie as average.
Bottom line: if not for JJ's pretentiousness, it would have made a really good Outer Limits episode. As such it feels too long and the ending just makes it feel fake. Too bad, it was a refreshing concept.