Shadow in the Cloud

Before watching this, I looked a bit into those really bad reviews here. So I decided to get the experience myself... And it was quite good. I did like those dialogues over intercom very much. Once in a uniform, some men think they are oblieged to talk...well, like idiots. There's similiar idiotic talk I heard myself during the time I served, decades ago. But the movie isn't about how idiotic men can be, but what a certain group of women can do, if they have to, at least about what we believe they can do. However, the movie continued to surprise me, the climbing scene was completeley captivating, I liked even becoming a bit dizzy...after that I thought 'Why do people hate this movie so much ? - It's just crazy !" (and not ludicruous, of course unrealistic, but nevertheless very effective). People seem to hate the movie because of the supernatural element. And I agree, mostly, that this was just a bad idea, which draws the movie "down" from its potential class, which would be "wartime drama" and is much more respectable than "fantasy action". However, technically there is not much to criticise, camera, cut, direction, music, fx, all decent, and of course, we can see that Chloe is able to singlehandedly carry a movie. So, I give 8 Stars. Wait, 8 ? That's a very good movie in my ranking system - how could that be ? Well, because I did like the freshness and the lighthearted verve of this little gem. And the little thing in the bag ;-)

I read the synopsis before I realized Grace morritze is in it and I thought the premise sounded dreadful. After watching the trailer I thought I didn't have anything to lose by watching it. Turns out i lost brain cells, as it's laughably bad, so much so I had to watch it to the end, as I was incredulous and curious about wether it would improve, but it just got more odd.

I think it's meant to be 80's B movie bad, hence the heavy synth music and poor effects. I really hope that's the case as it just got weirder by the minute. Everything was poor; the script, the heavy handed misogyny, the acting (at one point Chloe reprimanded her colleagues for their remarks and she sounds like a teacher telling kids off, rather than an authoritive soldier), the effects (apart from the dog fights, they were cool), the storyline was terrible, just awful.

I really hope I missed something and this was supposed to be a homage to old camp ott 80's horror, because if not I'm concerned about everyone's career in this. I'm sure there was a message about the indomitable spirit of womanhood, "girls can do stuff now" and the lengths we will go to protect our own, despite the blatant sexism and misogyny we experience and the odds being stacked against us, but if so it was jammed right in our faces and we were bludgeoned with it.

It could also be viewed as a comedy as there are so many "oh, come on!" moments, my eyes rolled so hard they nearly popped out of my head. If you watch this do not take it seriously,, and you might just make it.

Chloe Frace Moretz is very good in this role for what she is given to work with and you can definitely tell that she is an actress with a lot of range and potential. Sadly, even her performance cannot hide the poor writing.

I was completely baffled when I saw Max Landis in the writing credits. Maybe that's the reason why some parts of the script was poor.

Bad script, so bad, I am not sure how it went to production with so much nonsense that makes no sense and just doesn't work. The acting was pretty nice by most actors and there were good moments, nice cgi. Script absolutely ruined the movie. Could've been a blockbuster if they just reworked it a bit( it is not that hard, I can clearly see about 10 possibilities without even thinking about it)

4.6/10

"Shadow in the Cloud" has the honor of being the first major movie release of 2021, on the very first of January, and it was very welcome as far as I'm concerned. It is an often choice for studios to drop the movies they don't have a lotta faith in early in the year, and, as expected (courtesy of the so-so trailer), "Shadow in the Cloud" is a flawed adventure, but an entertaining one. To me it seems that critics woke up in such excellent spirits that the flaws are easier to assign less weight to, and the general audience is getting hanged up on gender problems of this film, a film that doesn't demand an in-depth analysis or much arguing. It is someplace inbetween, where this shlocky B voyage lands itself.

Flight Officer Garrett (Chloe Grace Moretz) has a secret mission, and an assignment to join Captain Reeves's team on his plane, aptly named "The Fool's Errand". Guys are, of course, shocked seeing a woman climb on-board, and for much of the movie, "Shadow in the Cloud" will poke a lot of fun at men being stupid and naughty, wherein lies the bothers of all those 1/10 reviews. As the crew is making peace with their newest addition, they put her in the "aquarium" or the small cockpit with big guns under the plane. This is where we'll spend first half of the film, the set-up a.k.a. the better part of the film.

Full disclosure, "Shadow in the Cloud" is hardly ever realistic or very hard on serious social commentary, it's a B-kind of shlock horror, just without much horror in this case, but the mechanics of the world are comic-book worthy, and, as a sum, it is mostly self-aware popcorn fun, infused with women-empowering lead like many exploitation flicks in the decades before this.

And so "Shadow in the Cloud" has just enough fun, somehow mostly exactly when camera doesn't leave Chloe stuck in that cockpit for the first two acts. The plot, however slowly and shallowly, develops from there, through the commendable acting of Chloe Grace Moretz. Such a solid performance definitely deserved a better movie, but it also helps a worse one. Say what You will, but she's a fine actress. So, carrying a lot of emotion and not very surprising twists, she fights jokesters and gremlins, the latter of which ultimately has very little place and meaning in "Shadow in the Cloud". The horror element rests. The third act is all bullets, explosions, fights and deaths, but it's also the least surprising and least tense act. Gremlins are also the only manifestations of iffy cgi, graphical inconsistencies. Style is a 50/50 factor for this movie, I liked the cinematography, and the synth hey-it's-the-80's soundtrack, though I couldn't figure if it feels displaced or not. For a movie tributing the 80's, it's not 80's enough. Though, being over-the-top and a little ridiculous, maybe it is 80's enough... Sound editing is odd at times, during scenes outside of a flying plane, where there should be screams of skies storming, we kind of have an awkward silence, as if a couple sound layers were muted.

There's a trivial backstory on why perhaps there's such discussion and dissatisfaction with the feminist nature of this film, it was originally written by Max Landis. Max Landis is now dealing with allegations of sexual abuse, and the script got heavily rewritten by director Roseanne Liang. You may entertain a couple of scenarios with this information, but personally I don't see any big problems with "Shadow in the Cloud" in regards to what's being so criticized.

"Shadow in the Cloud" is more expensive looking B blockbuster, straight-forward popcorn entertainment, a typical but thin creature feature, a ww2 action romp in the skies, and, really, not the worst offering in the first days of new hope. 2021, I mean. My rating: 5/10.