Reviews

I liked everything about this movie except the husband character ("Junior" played by Paul Mescal) who is so incredibly unlikable, he ruins the entire movie.

Saoirse (pronounced "Sur-Sha") Ronan ("Hen" the wife) is terrific. And obviously, her character is clearly too good for her childish, selfish, inconsiderate jerk of a husband. Even in this apocalyptic wasteland, most wives would have left this idiot. Obviously she can work and support herself. And she's portrayed as intelligent and talented.

There are other questions --- what government official shows up at night when everybody is asleep?

And I didn't buy that she fell in love with the replacement. Because he was a jerk also.

I only gave it a 7 because of the husband character. The movie moved a little slow at times. And I expected the big twist/reveal at the end. Otherwise I would have given it a 10.

I mainly watched because of Saoirse Ronan. She was terrific.

I thought the premise was good. Normal people on vacation at an AirB&B get caught in the middle of a cyber attack. How does one survive? What would normal people do?

The problem for me with this movie is the characters are not normal. The white wife says she doesn't like people. The black daughter is a racist. The black father has too many secrets. The white son is an annoying jerk to his little sister throughout the entire movie. The survivalist is a greedy and selfish psychopath.

Normal people don't act like this (even normal survivalists). Normal people would get to the bottom of things more quickly. Normal people would work together in an emergency.

This is the problem with Hollywood for me. They don't make movies about normal people. Every character has to have emotional, psychological, or mental problems. Or be gay, or trans, or woke, or a psychopath, etc.

I thought the premise was interesting. But the soap opera laid on top of it took away from what could have been a good movie. I didn't care about the characters because they were so abnormally screwed up. I found their personality problems annoying and distracting.

The cyber attack and impending civil war would have been enough conflict for me.

• The deer were supposed to be symbolic of something. But totally unrealistic. Deer never have, and never would act like that.

• Flamingos live in the tropics and subtopics. No reason to ever fly to New York. Maybe they escaped from a zoo because of the cyber attack.

• Lyme disease doesn't make your teeth fall out. Especially the next day.

This movie makes some good points, like how dependent most of us are on modern technology --- GPS, Internet, cellphones, computers, streaming, etc. And how when it all goes down, how lost most of us are.

But although I watched it all the way to the end, the unnecessary --- and seemingly obligatory soap opera took away from my enjoyment of what could have been a very interesting and entertaining movie --- for me.

The monsters and special effects look good. But the main story is about a girl who learns her father had two wives and two children in two separate countries.

The secondary story is about the (evil) Monarch company or agency. That is supposedly full of corruption and/or incompetence.

This seems to be a repeated formula for many recent "scifi" movies and TV shows. Have a drama about characters, with the monsters, or aliens as a backdrop to the drama about the characters. The formula is --- people drama, drama, drama. Then throw in a little monster or alien action. Then back to the people drama, drama, drama. Apple TV's "Invasion" is the same. (And if I'm not mistaken, one of the Godzilla movies was like this. You know the one where we barely ever saw Godzilla.)

Anyway, the girl finds out she has a brother in Japan. This brother's ex-girlfriend is portrayed as a depressed, cynical, pessimistic, immature, irresponsible, whiny baby. She's awful to the brother when they first meet. She's awful to the brother when he ask for help. She's even awful to the airport check in lady, as if it's her fault she's even in Alaska.

She voluntarily follows the brother and sister through numerous dangerous quests. Including flying a stolen plane with two men they don't know, one they had to break out of a detention facility, to a frozen tundra where they get attacked by a giant monster. She keeps blaming the ex boyfriend for ruining her life, when nobody forced her to do anything. She could have checked out at any step.

Anyway, after being told the part of San Francisco that has been destroyed by a monster attack is off limits and guarded by the military, the three "kids" decide to sneak in with help from the star's mother (who told them not to go) and her boyfriend. While sneaking around in the dark, and narrowly escaping military patrols, the two siblings decide its a good idea to sing, dance and laugh loudly. They almost get caught again. As usual in these types of monster movies and TV shows, the military is portrayed as stupid and incompetent.

Most of the first 5 episodes are spent dealing with melodrama over the star's family problems, people representing or dealing with Monarch, and all the main characters fighting with each other. Every now and then you get a monster.

First of all, this is not scifi. Which is what it is advertised as. Secondly, it's really a drama. And as a drama, it's not really that good.

4 out of 10 for me.

I watched this movie in it's entirety, out of curiosity. And I was more than prepared to turn it off, if it was too stupid.

I liked the music. Some of the jokes were funny and clever. But many just fell flat. The general message of --- get to know somebody first before sleeping with them --- is good. Although I believe there is nothing wrong with bedding strangers if you find them attractive, or if you are really in the mood --- sometimes.

But I thought the premise was stupid. Nothing wrong with helicopter parents hiring an older woman to bring their overprotected and inexperienced son out of his shell. But, the Jennifer Lawrence character comes across as too mature and intelligent to not just see this as a "friends with benefits" situation. As a opposed to an actual "fake" boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. She can mentor him, teach him how to deal with the world as an adult, and even sleep with him. But no need to pretend to be his actual girlfriend.

I think the holding hands and kissing in public scenes were cringy, inappropriate and unnecessary. Older people and younger people become friends and have sex all the time in real life. But they don't hold hands and kiss romantically in public, if they are just friends with benefits.

This movie is better than most stuff out there. But it wasn't great. The acting, the music, the cinematography were good. But, as is often the case, the writing is usually the reason most movies are --- not great, not good or just plain bad.

Basically this movie is about a mentally ill man who falls in love with a mentally ill woman. And they both destroy each other. As another reviewer said, it's basically a 30 minute Twilight Zone episode stretched out into a hour and a half movie. Super slow, stupid and annoying vague.

I liked the opening segment on Earth with it's future world technology. But as soon as the the George Clooney character (Kelvin) gets a mysterious video message from outer space, I became annoyed.

Who agrees to go to outer space to fix a problem that the customer/client won't identify? I have my own business. I wouldn't even go across town to fix a problem the customer/client wouldn't identify, explain, or talk about. But this guy agrees to go to outer space? Stupid.

Defenders may say they couldn't tell him what was going on because they didn't know. They knew. They knew way more than they were telling him. They weren't stupid. Especially the Gordon (Viola Davis) character. The writers didn't want us the viewers to know. This is a cheap and lazy way to try to create mystery. Stupid and unrealistic.

Then he gets to the space station and still, as I said, nobody will explain what's going on. Intelligent people don't operate like this. It makes no logical sense. Stupid.

I'm giving it a 4 because it's done well and it looks good. But I'm always immediately turned off by intentional vagueness (or vaguery) in movies, in a lazy attempt to create mystery.

(I watched two copies of this movie. Both had no title page or opening credits. That's weird.)

(I haven't seen every George Clooney movie and TV show. But everything I've seen him in, he's always brooding like his character is carrying around some heavy duty internal baggage. He's never upbeat, energetic, enthusiastic, happy, etc. --- ER, Up in the Air, Midnight Sky and this.)

She (Rheya - Natascha McElhone) meets Kelvin. They fall madly in love. They get married. She gets pregnant. She has an abortion without telling him she's pregnant. He finds out. He's understandably angry. They have an argument where she says, "I didn't know you felt this way". How would she know how he felt if she never told him she was pregnant, and she never asked him how he felt? They're married !!! It's his child !!!

Stupid.

Anyway, during the argument she also tells him, "Don't leave me. I can't make it without you." He leaves temporarily because he's angry. She kills herself. He returns to find her dead.

The movie starts with him after her death living life depressed because she's gone. Then he goes to space by request to fix a problem he has no information about. She appears constructed off his memory (by the planet Solaris). Instead of returning to Earth, he decides to stay on the space station with her image, because he rather live with her, than be alone on Earth.

He is an educated man (professional psychologist). He's good looking --- he's George Clooney for goodness sake !!! But he rather stay alone in outer space with a fake image of a wack job, than return to Earth and fall in love with a mentally healthy woman?

Stupid.

Julie Bowen (Modern Family) is in this.

But --- in the first ten minutes the Julie Bowen character (the star actress's mother) gets killed in the most cliche, trope, and dumb manner. Inspite of being obsessed with the Sweet Sixteen Killer, having trained in martial arts, self defense, having hidden guns around the house, and doing a great job fighting off a bigger, stronger man --- she makes the Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween movie cliche mistake of not finishing off the killer. She stabs him once, and then crawls off crying and distraught. Allowing him to pop back up and kill her.

She's in her house. A murderer just attacked and tried to kill her. It's perfectly legal, moral and ethical to use deadly force against someone who's trying to kill you.

Stupid.

I was riveted through the first 9 episodes of season one. Although I was disappointed in the finale (episode 10, season 1). I thought the finale was extremely unrealistic and illogical. Maybe it was an exercise in existentialism - "That's not the way it really happened. It's just the way it seemed.'"

Season two has digressed into nothing more than a melodramatic soap opera.

I've never been a fan of Jennifer Anniston. I never found her good looking (she's not ugly). And I've never found her extremely talented (she's not terrible). I just never thought she was a big deal.

But her character in this show is so miserable, she takes away from the show. Obviously she is a narcissistic irresponsible baby who's destroyed her family, and is destroying herself. And she's too stupid to realize it. But why make her a main character? Who can stomach her for any length of time? Season one doesn't spend too much time on her.

Most normal people are happy to get a job that doesn't make them miserable, and will take care of them and their families. And they retire as soon as they can afford it.

The Jennifer Anniston character is never happy starting with the first episode. She hates her job and industry. Why doesn't she just quit? She's made enough money to retire and live multiple lifetimes in filthy opulence. She's made more than enough to take care of her family. Why is she still working a job she hates? Because she's an idiot. An extremely annoying idiot.

Season two is more time with the Jennifer Anniston character. I could never stand it when she is on screen. I just want to punch her in the face and tell her, "Everything is not about you. Grow up and think of somebody else for a change. Instead of your self-anointed "most precious" feelings that nobody else cares about."

Season one had many different characters, plotlines and issues it dealt with. Season two has just slowed down to spend too much time with the stupid Steve Carell character still not being able to figure out what he did wrong. And the Jennifer Anniston character self emoting over what an idiot she is. Nobody cares anymore.

And the Reese Witherspoon character was one of the few characters in season one who was not blinded by power, money and fame. She just wanted to do the right thing. But now in season two she's just as bad, shallow and putrid as the Jennifer Anniston character.

The most interesting characters in season one are all gone in season two --- the girl who killed herself taking drugs, the British girl who quit because she couldn't deal with complications and ramifications of her naive mistake of having an affair with a co worker, and the season one principled Reese Witherspoon character, who is now selfish, petty and childish in season two.

I give a 9 to season one.

A 1 to season two.

Half way between is my rating of 5.

I'm on the season two episode where maybe the Steve Carell character crashes and dies in Italy. I wish the Jennifer Anniston character was with him. Because I'm sick of both. Not sure I'm gonna continue. The show has gotten so petty, following insufferable morons and their ignorance and narcissism. Nobody cares !!! Get back to the interesting issues !!!

I would recommend season one to anybody. But season two just seems to be for soap opera lovers who like melodramatic pettiness.

I like Kaley Cuoco. She was great in Big Bang Theory. But these last two projects --- The Flight Attendant, and now this --- have been kind of silly. They were both dark comedies. So I guess if you keep that in mind, and watch with tongue in cheek . . .

I think I only watched these last two projects because of Kaley Cuoco. I think she is beautiful and a good actress. But personally I think she looks better with blonde hair. And I never like bangs in people faces. (She has a beautiful face. Why hide it behind those stupid bangs?) Maybe it is a creative choice.

I find it hard to believe Ava (Kaley Cuoco) would never realize she lost the burner phone in Las Vegas until the house party back in L. A. She was obsessed with the podcast.

It's done well. Good acting. But kind of silly.

Just like The Flight Attendant, 6 out of 10 for me.

• The pro environment, pro indigenous, anti Earth human message is too heavy handed.

• Who is sponsoring Miles Quaritch's trip back to Pandora? His whole purpose is to kill Jake Sully? Someone is paying to ship Quaritch and his men back to Pandora just so he could settle a personal score? He has the power to just take over everything, destroy expensive equipment, and kill people?

• Movie is too long. Many boring slow spots. Could have been told in two hours. Three hours is too long.

• Movie is over acted. Especially the part of Neyteri. When she is not screaming and crying like an emotional basket case, she's being a racist and hypocrite. She loves, married and had children with Jake --- who's an Earth human. But she doesn't like Spider because --- he's an Earth human. She even threatens to kill him towards the end of the movie.

• In the last movie the Navi kicked out the Earth humans. Now they are not only back, they have built stations and rail lines? And the Navi just let them share their planet? And destroy their wildlife? (I'm beginning to see how and why the American Indians lost the Americas to the Europeans. Inferior technology, no organization, and terrible long term strategy.)

Rating is for the special effects. But like a lot of movies, the writing is bad.

This movie is fine if you want to see dinosaurs, special effects, action, drama, etc. But it's nothing special.

It has a formulaic cliche plot. Where was this guy going? What was his mission? I must have missed that. He's got a wife and special needs child at home. He crashes on a planet (Earth 65 million years ago). Only survivor other than him is a nine year old who doesn't speak English.

Dinosaurs, special effects, action --- pile on the conflict for dramatic effect --- nonstop action --- "How are they going to get out of this?" --- formula.

Not really much drama. You know they are both going to survive. Only dinosaurs seen are meat eating predators. Where are the plant eating herbivores?

Why was the adult character not wanting to let the girl see a picture of his little girl? Doesn't he realize it's only natural for a little girl to show an interest in his little girl?

Why did the girl not want to go with him after he saved her life? Wouldn't she be clinging to him for safety and protection?

He tells her to launch the escape shuttle when he's being chased by a dinosaur? Does she know how to operate the escape shuttle? Does she understand English now? (That must be some hellafied tough shuttle to survive a crash landing on a planet that separates it from the mothership. And a fall off a cliff.)

The dinosaurs, special effects and action were cool. But like many action movies, the plot is stupid, overly melodramatic, contrived, illogical, etc.

I thought technically everything was good in this mini series. The acting, the cinematography, and especially the music. Both the background music and the songs they chose.

But I wasn't particularly attracted to any of the main characters. Elliot not only kept breaking the law with her lab experiments. She was a sex and drug addict who murdered a homeless woman, and severely injured a pregnant woman who was giving birth to quadruplets. She may have killed her if the father hadn't pulled her away.

Beverly had no sales knowledge or ability, exemplified by how she couldn't sell her idea to an investor. You would expect a doctor with her education and expertise would have a little sales understanding.

Both were extremely rude and disrespectful to their parents. And obsessively and unhealthily codependent on each other.

Tom the lab assistant was completely incorrect when he accused Beverly of abandoning Elliot. Elliot was a grown woman who like Beverly, needed to be independent, and who was completely responsible for her own mistakes, sins and crimes.

I understand this is the point of the movie. But the result is two extremely unattractive, uninteresting characters that I couldn't care about. I only watched because my sister raved about it, it was done well, and I kept hoping things would turn around. (It's only six episodes. Still, it took me about four sittings to complete.)

And --- what about Beverly's dead body in the lab? How do they explain that? Obviously Beverly was pregnant. And Elliot was not. And although identical twins have the same DNA, they don't have the same fingerprints. Does anybody really think Elliot killed herself by cutting her own pregnant belly open, when she wasn't even pregnant to begin with?

I found the first three episodes difficult to stick with. Slow and tedious. Things picked up after that. But still, these characters were sick and weird.

Most of us are rightfully used to saying "another stupid Netflix show". But this is not one of those.

If you can get past the initial incredibly stupid actions of the two main characters, you will see a good program that has smart dialogue, intelligent plot, and multi dimensional characters.

As you probably know, the main plot point is a road rage incident that goes way too far involving a man and a woman.

The main male character is portrayed as a poor guy who has worked hard all his life, tried to do the right thing, and take care of his family. But unfortunately nothing seems to work out. And as a result, nobody appreciates or respects him. As a matter of fact, he's in the process of trying to kill himself when the initial incident occurs.

The main female character is portrayed as a rich woman with a good job, good husband, a beautiful daughter, and supportive family. I personally had less sympathy for her because she had more education, and more financial and political power. Her main problem was she has emotional, psychological and mental problems.

I felt sorry for her having those problems. But that doesn't give her the right to bully strangers less fortunate than her.

But, as in real life, violently pursuing a stranger who has done you wrong is dangerous, because you never really know who you are dealing with.

I didn't like the final episode as much as the first nine (it's a ten show series) because you can easily see and predict what's going to happen. And although in general it could happen, I don't buy the way the final act of this episode was portrayed. The otherwise non violent husband is probably not going to just shoot anybody who is obviously clearly helping his injured wife, after only screaming, "Get away from her !!!" Again, that could be the end result. But it was portrayed poorly. And once again, this poor guy gets the worst of it.

Are either of the main two characters particularly appealing? No. But that is logical and realistic. Because reasonable and healthy people are most likely never going to act this way. Mostly only deranged lunatics.

This show brings to mind the quote by Confucius and Jodi Picoult --- "When you begin a journey of revenge, start by digging two graves: one for your enemy, and one for yourself."

And one by common consensus --- "It's just not worth it."

(There probably won't be a season two. Because it didn't end with a cliffhanger.)

I think a topic like this is fitting given the insanity we are seeing on the local and national news in the United States at the time of this release.

Finally, we can say, "Good job Netflix".

I think this movie is good. Although it's not realistic. It's kind of a "what if". There is no way anybody could prevent anybody from leaving their subdivision.

(And when you think about it, what was Jack really doing when he went to work? Changing his wife's diaper? Feeding her intravenously? And how long would his wife's body be expected to live, laying in bed 24/7/365 with a virtual reality headset on, never moving?)

I think it's a metaphor for, with the moral of the movie being --- many people just accept what other people tell them. And investigating and finding out the real truth could be scary and dangerous.

The acting was good. Especially Florence Pugh. I've only seen her in this and Black Widow. And she was great in both.

And I was surprised to see Harry Styles in a movie. I knew him as a singer and dancer in a boy band. But not as an actor. I thought he did a good job.

The cinematography and music were good. I found it entertaining.

I'm not sure about the ending. I usually don't like endings like this. I guess she woke up next to Jack's dead body. But not definitely. Since she went to the headquarters and touched the glass earlier. But woke up in her bedroom back in Victory City. But I guess since Jack was still alive, he just put her back in.

But me being a fan of crime investigation and prosecution dramas, I'd like to see what she did next. I guess she brought the whole thing down. But supposedly, many of the residents liked Victory City, even though they knew it was a sham.

This movie is not for everybody. But I liked it.

Everything about this movie - acting, cinematography, atmosphere, set, setting, special effects and action - is good. But the plot is stupid. (The action is stupid. But it's portrayed well).

Here's the plot. Scientists create a baby girl, who grows up to be a murderous psychopath. And --- here's the kicker --- they are so dedicated, and in love with "Morgan" (the murderous psychopath) that they protect her to the end. And take little or no precautions to protect themselves from her killing them. Even though she murdering them one by one. It's really stupid.

Lee Weathers (Kate Mara) says terminating bad results from projects is what she does. Well, she doesn't do it very well. Everybody dies one by one. She gets beat up by Morgan twice. Apparently she never watched a YouTube video of cops using the pit maneuver. She tells her love interest after getting beat up the first time by Morgan, "I'm taking your car". Why? You are not bringing any weapons? She gets run into a tree. Morgan gets away again.

There are lots of big names in this movie. Kate Mara, Ana Taylor Joy, Paul Giamatti, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michelle Yeoh . . .

I personally thought the movie was too insistent that something funny was going on with the mysterious music playing immediately and throughout the movie, and all the characters always acting weirdly.

I had little sympathy for the characters who die. Except for maybe Skip (Lee's love interest). Because they are all stupid idiots. Even Skip. Skip brings a rifle to stop Morgan. But after she beats up Lee, he walks right up to her says, "No, stop". Allowing her to take the rifle away from him. We can all see that coming a mile away.

If you can laugh off the stupid plot, maybe you can enjoy this movie. Because everything else is done well. But it's stupid.

I don't agree with most of the bad reviews here at IMDb. Yes, most are good. But the most common complaints from the few bad reviews are;

1) They liked the kidnap/hostage possibility portion. But they didn't like the action/scifi portion.

I don't know what they thought they were watching, being the movie had Cloverfield in the title. Every Cloverfield movie I've ever seen is about an alien attack.

And personally, that was the best part of the movie for me. The action and special effects were good.

2) They didn't buy the supposedly abrupt change of the main character from scared little girl, to focused and courageous action hero.

I went back and watched the ending again. I don't see a focused and courageous action hero. The lady looks scared to me.

Of course she is going to be focused. The situation is more simple. She's being attacked by aliens. And her goal is too survive.

During the kidnap/hostage mystery portion of the movie, the situation was unclear. She didn't know if Howard was telling the truth. Or if he was a psychopath. She didn't know if it was safe outside, or dangerous.

Most people, especially young people are going to be focused during an alien attack. Yes, some people will freeze. But many will spring into action. She looked afraid and frantic to me. Not some confident "been here before/know just what to do" action hero.

My only question, and it's a small observation. My only question is, why did the radio in Michelle's car work perfectly before the accident? And the lady's car radio work perfectly after her escape, to immediately find out what was going on? Where Henry had no means of finding out what was happening outside.

He went through all these elaborate preparations in case of a catastrophe. But he had no means of finding out what was happening outside? What was his plan? Just stay underground for 1, 2 years. And then wait for the cops to show up?

Of course, if you look hard enough, you can pick apart any movie. Especially a scifi movie.

I was entertained. I thought about the movie after it was over. I thought it was good. Good acting, good premise, good dialogue, good plot, good action, and good special effects.

This show has the same problem lots of bad shows and movies have. There are no good characters to care about. Every character is either bad to begin with. Or they turn bad after being seduced or influenced by the devil.

What owner and CEO of any company would sign over control of their business to a stranger who showed up with no appointment? Without doing a background check and consulting with others? Not only sign over control, but agree to commit suicide and perform a vulgar sex act on him.

I know, I know, he supposedly is seduced by the devil with supernatural powers.

Supposedly that is what happens to everybody at this company. Leaving no one good enough to care about.

Are we supposed to care about some pathetic wimp who smells so bad he's forced to take a bath at work? Why didn't he just go home and take a shower? Why take a sponge bath in his office over the computer keyboard? And why is he crying? Pathetic.

Elaine sneaks into a locked, off limits storeroom to read secret files. Starts smoking somebody else's cigarettes. Leaves a smoked cigarette in the ashtray with her lipstick on it. And blows off her date. She cannot call him and reschedule? It's not only stupid --- it's selfish, inconsiderate and horribly bad mannered.

(Elaine says she shares an apartment in the valley with two struggling artists. She drives an old beat up economy car. Her new boss says she makes just under $60 thousand a year. I know LA is expensive. But come on? What is she spending her money on?)

Craig lies to his boss and his fiancé. Of course he gets caught. How many times have we seen that?

My last hope was Craig's fiancé. But even she became seduced by the mysterious new boss of the business where all the main characters work.

I think I only watched the first 6 episodes. Then I lost interest because there were no good characters to care about. Where is the conflict? No good against bad.

What is the moral of the story? Don't be seduced by the devil and do bad things? According to this show nobody has the power to resist.

Okay, the devil takes over a new software startup and turns everyone bad. So? Who cares.

I didn't.

I do not agree with most of these comparisons of the original and the remake.

I've seen both, one after the other.

Both have good acting, good dialog and the best special effects available at the time. And both have a stupid premise --- a supposedly advanced alien comes to Earth to enforce unfair hypocrisy.

In the original, the alien says humans are too violent. "Either stop fighting, warring and being violent, or our robot police will destroy you."

So? You want us to surrender our freedom and self determination to your fleet of robot police who were not elected, and we cannot communicate with? No thank you. Freedom comes at the price of risks. And what if another alien race destroys your robot police? How are we supposed to defend ourselves?

And? How did your race of aliens get from your original primitive form to this "advanced" form of evolution? Weren't you guys violent at one time? Didn't you guys have war? Didn't you develop technology to defend yourselves from your enemies? Well? Why can't we have the same experience?

I gave both movies a 7 for entertainment value, good acting, good dialog, and best special effects available at the time. I would have given both a 10, but both premises were both stupid.

(The remake premise is just as stupid. The difference is, the supposedly advanced alien says we humans are destroying the planet. So to save the planet, he's going to destroy the humans.

In a conversation with a scientist, the alien realizes his own race of aliens faced their own environmental crisis. And survived. The human scientist says, "Give us the same experience and challenge of dealing with our own environmental crisis.")