Following my comment at the end of the review, the genre and context of 10 Cloverfield Lane is definitely a highlight. Who doesn't want a series of smaller budget, high-concept thrill rides with brand new worlds and characters every time? Of course, these would only be promising if the worlds and characters therein were actually interesting. Had this idea springboarded from the first Cloverfield, I would be worried, as the characters in that film were not particularly engaging.
10 Cloverfield Lane, on the other hand, actively highlights the progression of character arcs in a way that goes above and beyond both its predecessor and plenty of previous "claustrophobic thriller" films in general.
Howard's back story, both those parts revealed and implied, jointly make him scarier and more human (in a way that might remind one of Norman Bates). Emmett's back story informs a shift in his attitude from having gratitude for Howard, then progressing to survivor's guilt (including his regret for never going far from home), and finally a little idolatry (hey, Michelle might be the last woman on the planet … as far as he knows). Michelle I will save for below in the spoilers.
This focus on characters in 10 Cloverfield Lane also belies its status, joining the modern trend seen in Ex Machina, Chronicle, Safety Not Guarenteed -- and to some extent District 9, among others -- where a B-Movie speculative short story or "Big Idea" is given a level of seriousness and human depth that was previously less prevalent.
*** HERE COME THE SPOILERS ***
What's so exciting about this is that actual, honest-to-goodness Science Fiction (the soft and hard kinds) is here combined with the compelling characters. Any decent film-makers could have aimed to forge their story into something like a competent mainstream thriller -- one that people might call "Hitchcockian" (and while I don't agree with the comparison, 10 Cloverfield Lane has been called such by several reviewers also).
This theoretical movie would have left our protagonist, Michelle, outside of the bunker and facing only the possibility of a worldwide disaster after the movie's central disaster (her capture by Howard). Throw in some ambiguity (what really happened? Did Howard make it all up?) and you've got yourself a water-cooler ending worthy of discussion. That could have been enough.
But this is not the point! 10 Cloverfield Lane is not yet another thriller of escaping a villain. Remember the multifaceted character arcs? Naturally, Michelle's is the heart of the story, and if it doesn't work the movie falls down. If Michelle had entered the film by running from her boyfriend after the argument as she does, but then exited the film by running from Howard, the cathartic release wouldn't have been nearly as potent – her character was doing the same thing at the beginning as at the end, and we're right back with the character-shallow B-movies of yesteryear, existing mostly for the thrills, violence or sexual content and not actually telling a story.
What does the audience get instead? A well shown, if concise, explanation (oh, no! Aliens!) and a whole ten minutes or more of just how Michelle's experience of surviving the bunker has changed her. She hides, she improvises, and then finally, in a so-classic-that-maybe-it's-
This is perhaps so wonderful a decision that it is actually difficult to see why at first. In fact, the original draft of the film was just as I described earlier, without the final confrontation and Michelle simply escaping from the bunker. Instead, as director Trachtenberg himself said, the final movie embraces the idea that
"it would be so cool if this really was … a badass little origin story …"
(io9, The Director of 10 Cloverfield Lane Explains All About That Wild Ending http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-director-of-10-cloverfield-lane-explains-all-about-1764626525)
So let's circle back around to this being "Genre Thoughts". You can pretty much understand the point of the film through Dan Trachtenberg's attitude to creating an interesting hero. Like Bad Robot's other most shining output Fringe, 10 Cloverfield Lane is by-genre-fans and for-genre-fans in a way that understands why we want to watch movies.
It's not about explosions (there are more than one in this film) and it's not about monsters (though it has plenty of those too). It's caring about the human beings enough that what they do matters, whether they are the villain of many stories beforehand (Howard!) or the hero of many stories to come. I really hope, too, that we haven't seen the last of action-hero Mary Elizabeth Winstead. She's really good at this stuff.
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