Trying to get away from aliens just feels tacked on when considering the rest of the movie. That, and the aliens really
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jfriesne — 9 years ago(September 17, 2016 09:57 PM)
The criticism that the ending was implausible is valid, but I liked it anyway, because it was so effectively nightmarish. I remember having nightmares similar to that when I was a child. The logistics in the nightmares never made much sense in retrospect either, but the feeling of the terror of being hunted was the same.
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triplegrim — 9 years ago(October 04, 2016 10:05 AM)
I liked it because I am tired of only having the aliens "hinted" at, like ID4, Signs, Oblivion and a lot of other SCI FI films. I enjoyed seeing the design of the space ship and the hunter released to go after her.
The plot twist, that there really WAS an alien attack, made it fairly interesting and meshed ok with the middle part (after they realize there WAS an attack, but that Howard is dangerous). The whole point was that she learned to not run away from situations, and ended up going to the front to help out.
Without the plot twist and the aliens, this would just have been any run of the mill "thriller drama" with 3 actors in it. None of them strong enough to carry such a concept imo.
Note that I went into this film expecting there to be some type of monster linkage to Cloverfield 1. If you just watch it straight up without any context, the alien ending might seem extreme stupid. -
dustinmcnab — 9 years ago(October 08, 2016 12:33 AM)
I think you missed the point of the film. It's not about the alien attack or anything else going on outside. It's about the main character learning to face her problems instead of running from them. She started the story by running away from whatever problem she had with her boyfriend. Her 'regrets' story was about her tendency to run away when things get tough. But by the end of the story, she's strong enough to fight her way out of the bunker and find a way to fight the aliens. She even had enough self-confidence to head toward people who needed 'combat experience' help. Route A would have been the safe option because the radio message said they already took that area back. She took the tougher Route B option.
I don't think it was a change of tone because it was all about Michelle's character growth as she gained confidence and the will to face her problems. -
exodiusace — 9 years ago(October 14, 2016 08:33 PM)
Broken english ahead, you have been warned.
At the beggining of the film, we are presented a character who is running away from her problems, and throughout the whole movie, this is a recurrent theme. It's clear that Michelle doesn't like her own actions on those situations, but she just isn't courageous enough. However, this changes when her actions, or lack thereof, leads Emmet to death. At this point, when Michelle is all by herself, and Howard is chasing her, she manages to defeat him, and then she manages to defeat the aliens. But, this were all situations where she was forced to face her problems, when there was no escape route, but it was enough to change her, later when she can choose between safety and and alien war (which is a slight problem), she chooses the war. That's basically "The Hero's Journey", as written by Campbell.
A flawed person running away from her problems in a car, who is forced to go into an "adventure"(the bunker). In the adventure, she slowly evolves as a heroic character, an evolution that is complete once she defeats the aliens. And then we have again a character in a car, but this time, not running away from her problems, but facing them.
Some people might just find the ending too irrealistic or off, if compared to the rest of the movie,which it is, but I would guess that was a conscious choice done by the team to suddenly change the film's tone at the ending, so it would be kind of a twist.
It's why I liked it. -
Luke_was_a_terrorist — 9 years ago(December 28, 2016 09:37 AM)
Well it's a movie about domestic abuse and about Michelle finally standing up and fighting back rather than running away, to that end I thought the ending was perfect.
I think you're the opposite of paranoid, I think you walk around with the delusion people like you. -
jwelker — 9 years ago(January 24, 2017 09:17 AM)
I posted this on another thread:
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.