Una sombra en la nube

These days, calling something a B-Movie is almost like saying it gets a pass for being a poor film, and while I don't believe that, there are moments in the film Shadow in the Cloud that the filmmakers clearly wanted you to turn your brain off for. I've been a fan of Chloe Grace Moretz as an actress for many years. From her fun roles like Hit-Girl in Kick-Ass or her incredibly committed dramatic performance in Hugo, she showed that her range was capable of going much further. Not knowing anything about this movie, I banked on the lead actress and the premise being fun enough, but I think I got much more than I bargained for. Here's why this film was both great and terrible all at once.

After sneaking on board a plane for mysterious reasons, Maude Garrett (Chloe Grace Moretz) will stop at nothing to protect her classified cargo. Taking place in a single area of the plane for the entirety of the first and second acts, Shadow in the Cloud held my attention very much. Where this film began to lose me was in the very, very over-the-top crew members she had to speak to throughout the film. The level of obnoxiousness was far too much for a movie like this and then the final act hit and it honestly became a completely different movie. It's been a while since I've seen a film switch gears as hard as this one did.

Having just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, I'm trying to wrap my head around how they're even going to market this film to the average moviegoer. For the most part, it takes place in a single location, and when it leaves that location to become a completely different movie, it sort of ruins the shock value of the final act to actually include that stuff in a trailer. Having no idea what this movie was before going in, I must say that I went through numerous emotions throughout. From being invested in the drama in the first act to raising an eyebrow for where it's about to go, to being completely taken out of the movie by the ridiculously over-the-top finale, it's going to be very hard to recommend this one to anyone.

Chloe Grace Moretz gives a damn good performance here, having about 95% of the movie to herself. By the third act, this movie just straight-up becomes a cartoon and I just thought to myself that she is far too good for a movie like this. Maybe the filmmakers knew exactly what movie they were making and knew that they wanted to create some schlock to close out the movie, but Shadow in the Cloud in turn just feels like a bunch of random ideas smashed into one film. I'm truly not sure who the audience for this film will be.

In the end, it's very clear that writer/director Roseanne Liang set out to make some obvious messages throughout the movie, which is what I feel the whole film was going for, but I thought it was way too heavy-handed, especially for the popcorn movie it becomes by the end. The best thing I can say about this film is that the central performance is great and the film is never boring, as it's 83-minute run time does fly by. The problem is that this movie evolves into something that's just too much for itself to handle. I got a huge kick out of certain elements, which is enough for me to give the film a passing grade overall, but it's not a great movie by any means. There are things to have fun with, but the over-the-top nature is simply overdone.

First things first, if you complain about unbelievable things happening in a movie about gremlins attacking an airplane, you need to have your opinion license permanently revoked.

"Shadow in the Cloud" is obviously meant to be viewed as a simple comic book style rip-roaring WWII adventure to be enjoyed like a cheeseburger or a pint of ice cream and not to be deeply analyzed for plot depth and realism. The hordes of egotists falling over themselves to prove how "above it all" they are need to loosen up and switch to decaff. Yes, absolutely ludicrous things happen in this movie, and that's what makes it fun! Is everyone really so hopped up on dopamine from constantly scrolling through social media that they can't let go and enjoy a zany movie?

Chloe Moretz' performance was captivating and thrilling from start to finish. These are the kind of roles she was born to play and it was clear that she had an absolute blast making the movie. The rest of the cast were clearly there to be functional, forgettable cardboard cutouts, and the energy of the movie would have suffered if they'd been directed to draw attention away from the main character.

I'm confident that in a decade this movie will be found on film lists under the heading "Cult movies that were despised on release". I'd love to see a sequel!

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.

"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.

There are so many things wrong with this movie. I rolled my eyes many times. Some parts were so dumb that i had to pause the movie in order to process what happened. The entire premise is ridiculous, and so many things that happen are absurd. Whoever made this doesn't understand the most basic laws of physics. And they overdid it with the message

having said all that, i was never bored. In fact, i was invested. And there is one, let's call it, subplot. That subplot doesn't seem to fit in this movie at all. And yet it was the most stupidly entertaining aspect of the movie. (1 viewing, 6/7/2021)