I went in thinking that even though it was going to be a crappy movie, I'll enjoy it anyways but I was absolutely hooked.
I was eating my hot dog when the crash happened at the beginning of the movie and I almost choked! I felt like I was in that car too.
Fun fact: Did you know the voice of Ben is Bradley Cooper? Michelle's ex-fiancee? Yup! I knew that voice somewhere!
I thought it was super clever to have her design a hazmat suit using her background of being a knitter herself.
CHARACTERIZATION, MAN.
The slippery slope of whether or not Howard was actually a psycho or not. The benefit of the doubt was still given but there was that "hmm" in the back of my mind.
EMMETT SHOT TO THE HEAD JUST LIKE THAT.
The chills when Michelle was wearing the same shirt as Megan when they found that picture of Howard and her in his bunker.
THAT MOLOTOV.
Michelle, I love you. Emmett, R.I.P.
Instant favorite and finally something original.
I read an idea somewhere that said Emmett was actually the killer all along, and when Michelle figured it out he had to frame Howard. I can't remember the pieces of how that all worked, but my memory is, the theory worked. And I love that it's ambiguous enough to support either option.
Actually it's not. I loved the movie, and I loved Cloverfield, so I looked up the continuity -- they're totally different universes. The reason for the crossover title is, it's got a similar 'vibe' with Cloverfield -- in that it's a big-scary-monster movie that's really not about the monster, not even remotely.
My take -- the first portion is like a combination of Signs (Shayamalan) and Ex Machina. Character-driven, psychological thriller, indie/small-budget cleverness and fucking incredible writing. Well directed, well shot.... fucking brilliant.
Then it morphs suddenly and dramatically into War of the Worlds (the Tom Cruise one) meets Alien (meaning the whole franchise, but mostly the first one). It's improvised warfare against horrifying, impossible space enemies. It's visceral and cool and again, fucking incredible writing -- shit is still tying back to stuff you heard about in the first part of the movie.
The magic in this movie is.... well, there's a lot. Every single thing worked. Acting was on point, directing was on point, writing was beyond on point, etc. The hitch is, it legitimately feels like two different movies hacksawed at the 1:45 mark and sewn back together on the wrong body. Somewhere out there, there's an alien-invasion movie that ends with half an hour of family-style dining and board games. But I'll tell you what -- drawing it up that way took balls, and I think it works. More or less. It really didn't need the Cloverfield tag, but there it is, and yeah, I guess it's got the similar vibe thing going on.... but it's confusing, and probably more than a little bit of cash-grab. BUT HEY -- this is the Avengers era. If we're gonna have a movie 'series' that's linked by thematic elements instead of strict chronology and continuity, you know what, more power to you, JJ Abrams. I'll get behind that 100%.