Without the fight against the aliens, there would be no character resolution for her. She decided to fight and not to ru
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Sammy_Sam_Sam — 9 years ago(January 16, 2017 04:10 PM)
I must've discussed this film was a dozen people by now, all of whom agreed with you regarding the ending. I loved it up till that last 10-15 minutes, but I was so disappointed. I've included a note with the DVD to skip the last chapter - it's now the non-director's cut.
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jwelker — 9 years ago(January 24, 2017 08:56 AM)
Disagree.
The ending did a couple of things.
One, it proved that Howard was correct about aliens, which means that he wasn't just trying to keep them locked up when there was no danger on the outside (albeit he was totally incorrect (or was lying) about people not being alive up there).
Two, it fit into the abuser theme the whole film had with Howard and Michelle. Michelle tells of the abuse she suffered when she was younger, and how she always ran instead of stood up to it. Howard exhibits many abuser tendencies throughout the film, even if he never physically harmed Michelle (it's ambiguous if he would have ever done that or not). When she finally gets out of that, the ending shows the world is not simply roses, similar to how people that are abused sometimes realize when they are out of an abusive relationship. It almost feels like she should have just stayed in the bunker instead of escaping.
Three, the choice at the end to go to Houston helps to show that Michelle isn't running away from problems anymore. -
Smokey_T — 9 years ago(January 24, 2017 02:32 PM)
Yes, I am sure anyone that suffered the ending was well aware of everything you pointed out.
Is it relevant that Howard was either wrong or right? Why do we care, how does that inform his character, or provide any sort of twist? It's called
Cloverfield
, we know some awful crap is killing all the people above ground. Could be human. It is no particular twist that the film called Cloverfield had aliens
No, no twists there, no merit, not interesting.
This history of abuse is probably the biggest flaw in the film's 'psychology'. If she had a history of abuse it would have been more likely that she would have engaged passively with Howard and accepted his abuse, and position of power. I never had the impression she was someone that has suffered considerable abuse, or was dealing with the effects of it. You are reading FARRRR too much into that ending when you read it as consciously speaking about the nature of 'abuse'. Yes, sometimes the devil you do not the devil you don't is best. Again, a fairly obvious reading that I am sure all critics picked up on, and discarded out of complete irrelevance.
Yes, we were well aware of her running away, and in the end she didn't run away, and that represented he change or growth of character. Who cares? It's a glib, and formulaic ending to a disjointed narrative.
This is not interesting, it's by the numbers storytelling. -
jwelker — 9 years ago(January 24, 2017 02:47 PM)
The film isn't about Howard; it's about Michelle. So it really doesn't matter if he was wrong or right.
The way the movie started out and then ended is hardly "by the numbers storytelling." By the numbers would have been if she escaped and there was like a nuclear attack or some other disaster and everything was destroyed, etc. (like the original treatment of the story, which apparently had Michelle go and find that Chicago was destroyed). -
Smokey_T — 9 years ago(January 24, 2017 03:02 PM)
If that it's true that it doesn't matter if he is wrong or right why mention that
"it proved that Howard was correct about aliens, which means that he wasn't just trying to keep them locked up when there was no danger on the outside"
By the number means adding elements with 'efficiency' that enable the plot, and are clearly resolved later. The start and the end, and a lot of what happened in between did exactly that. Everything that was added at the start was resolved at the end, and had little effect upon what happened in between. I'm all for efficient narratives, but this was lazy.
She needed to be in a car, and Howard needed to hit her. That was all that mattered to make the plot work, everything else was about creating something resembling a closed narrative once we got through all that. -
jwelker — 9 years ago(January 24, 2017 03:13 PM)
For some reason I was taking it as whether or not he was right or wrong about taking her in, not whether he was actually right about the reason for the disaster.
How did Michelle venturing out to who knows what in Houston, still not knowing anything about what happened to her fiance even, resolve what happened in the beginning of the movie? -
WarpedRecord — 9 years ago(January 25, 2017 09:28 AM)
I loved the bunker scenes as well, and I think the film completely lost momentum and credibility with it removed one character and abandoned another. This would have been so much more satisfying had the three seen the story through to the end.
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AtheismBecauseReason — 9 years ago(January 28, 2017 07:15 AM)
Totally agreed!
I loved this film through the moment she saw the birds and took off the mask to breath. I was loving it, wondering what was going to happen.
And then a UFO and a weird alien dog thingie?
WHAT?
From that moment on I couldn't take the scrunched "WTF is this crap" look off my face. Just completely misplaced.