Shadow in the Cloud (2020) is an action horror movie directed by Roseanne Liang. It stars Chloe Grace Moretz. Movie revolves around a WWII pilot that encounters creatures in a B-17 Flying Fortress. Below is my Shadow in the Cloud (2020) movie review
Among many problems with this movie, one of the big ones is the fact that it feels like two movies. One is a war drama and the other is a horror movie about creatures that also has some family drama to it. It starts off as a drama and then abruptly switches tone on us, which takes us out of the movie. The 2nd part of the movie is arguably more interesting as it has weird creatures in it, but not by much. We don’t get to see them much and they never come off as that intimidating. In fact, the aerial attacks are more deadly than the creatures. Again, the tone and direction is all over the place.
For most of the movie, the setting doesn’t change. Majority of it is filmed down in the gun turret ball (I am sure there is an official name for it). This is where Moretz’s character (Maude Garrett) spends most of her time. All of her dialogue is delivered here as she talks to the rest of the characters thru the comms. While they are diverse enough, most of the time they make fun of her for being a woman. They make a lot of crude sexual jokes and undermine her expereince. They also don’t trust her and believe her when she sees creatures under the plane. Rinse and repeat. This goes on for the majority of the movie.
While Moretz carries most of the movie on her shoulders, the movie does go into a weird territory where it becomes cartoonish (think of Fast and Furious stunts). From dumb decisions being made to over the top action sequences that are insanely dumb. The creatures themselves also take a back seat in the movie as it tries to figure out where it is headed. The finale is pretty dumb and it makes the movie overall just bland. While some argued that the movie plays homage to The Twilight Zone show, it still comes off as bland. Don’t get me started on the whole package and what’s in it. With so much turbulence, how did it stay in one piece?
Overall the movie is all over the place. It seems like a bunch of different elements were crammed into a 90 min movie and the director didn’t know what to follow though. She didn’t know what to focus on so the movie doesn’t really have an audience to attract. The director also seems to have pushed in a feminist message into the movie which based on Hollywood’s past always do well.
Keep in mind this was also written by Max Landis who had some serious sexual allegations filed against him. The movie went through multiple rewrites, but the movie screenplay is still Landis’.
Thanks for reading my Shadow in the Cloud (2020) movie review
