NO SPOILERS.
Because of certain similarities between Alive and my most recent movie-theater visit, 10 Cloverfield Lane, I'm going into this review with a similar policy:
NO SPOILERS.
When the original Cloverfield came out in 2008, I somehow managed to not see it for three years or so afterwards, and also somehow managed to not get spoiled for that movie in that time. Like its predecessor, 10 Cloverfield Lane requires an absolute lack of spoilers for any and all viewers going into it, and especially because unlike the Godzilla-esque monster movie that was the original, this movie (which, just FYI, is NOT a sequel, or even a prequel, but more of what producer JJ Abrams calls a "blood relative" - in other words, a spiritual successor, a separate entry in a Lovecraftian anthology) is a psychological thriller instead. It just poses an apocalyptic scenario to add to its confined-in-an-underground-bunker setting. It's still a monster movie in its own right, though, because while the movie focuses almost entirely on this underground bunker where the only inhabitants are plain old humans...well, I'll let this quote from another psychologically-driven work which happens to have a composer in common with this movie say it:
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| Have fun trying to interpret this statement without seeing the movie first. |
In other words, we're the monsters. Or, more accurately, certain members of our species are the monsters. It's easy to figure out which is which while watching the movie, but even as you do so, the lengths to which said monsters go surprise and mind-boggle and horrify at every turn.
And, like most horror-type movies, there's something to be said for a potential Biblical interpretation of it all too. Think of the movie's three cast members (there's only one other human who physicall appears in person for a moment, another in a photo, and Bradley Cooper in a voice cameo) as follows: Adam and Eve, possibly the only fertile man and woman in this strange new world, and the sort of powerful but vengeful (and quite prone to rage) Old Testament God I think my mother likes to worship.
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| I know, right? I thought God was all about forgiveness and mercy- Oh, you had to bring him up now? We were having a moment! |
And along the way, we get treated to tons of thrills and chills and, of course, old-timey-flavored jukebox music, without which it just wouldn't be a Bad Robot production.
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| All it needed to complete the ensemble was a Slusho. |
All of the above combine to make an A movie, one very definitely worth seeing in theaters.
And as I bow out to the ominous piano, drum, and sleigh bells jingle of the Fringe theme (the best of any JJ Abrams production ever IMHO)...
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| #FeedTheRightWolf |
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| Remember: Denis Leary is always watching. Always. |
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