Friday, March 11, 2016

I saw 10 Cloverfield Lane last night and I left the movie with more questions than answers.

I saw 10 Cloverfield Lane last night, and I left the movie with more questions than answers. As a movie, it's a rather brilliant gem, and it probably didn't cost very much to make. The cast is super small, which probably went a long ways toward keeping production cost down. And there were several moments when I felt the director was borrowing heavily from a story called "Wool" by Hugh Howey. It plays very effectively on the whole "apocalypse" theme and uses psychological terror to keep the audience engaged with the characters.

So why does the movie leave me unsatisfied, and does that mean I'd want to see another. Perhaps a sequel? Yes it does. It's the same kind of trick that writers use when they "cliffhang" things, and I think that (in particular) I'm very susceptible to this kind of storytelling. I wonder if this is the same kind of fascination that the public has with serial killers. I mean...a lot of serial killers don't ever have a motive which is why it's so hard to track them down. And that has made for a lot of good stories about them. It's this whole fascination that us humans have to desiring answers to questions that will never materialize. It almost seems cruel that a writer or a director would make a film that results in the same lack of answers, but at the same time it's obviously effective at making people come back and pay for more.

I suppose life is about getting answers to questions we have. And the questions that never get answers bother us so much that we make up solutions until something else comes along that actually solves the question. We are odd creatures, humans. And J.J. Abrams knows exactly how to troll us all, not that I'm complaining. Okay, yes I'm complaining.

I want some answers dammit!

6 comments:

  1. Crap, I don't want to know! Seeing it this afternoon and JoBlo's site said the less you know going into it, the better. Questions might just mean there is another sequel coming though.

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  2. Your post doesn't seem to have any answers either.

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  3. The original Cloverfield left us asking countless questions as well.

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  4. I think when it's open ended, you get to answer the questions as you see fit.

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  5. I don't mind unanswered questions. You get to be creative and fill in the blanks. Of course there is always that nagging exception.

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  6. If you get the answers, won't that generate more questions? Sometimes I like unanswered questions in movies/stories also, just so I can make up my own solutions. This is a movie I've been wanting to see with my sister.

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