I went into this knowing nothing more than it was set during WWII, starred Chloe Grace Moretz, and had gotten solid reviews. After finishing it....I'm at a loss for how it got ANY good reviews. This was not great and felt like a mish-mash of way too many different visions/stories/genres. If you're planning on watching, here come spoilers. If you plan on avoiding this (which you should), this is the crazy ride you'll go on: SPOILERS START HERE

The first 30-40 minutes are basically a one-hander with only Moretz on screen in an isolated environment of a WWII plane's gunner turrent. It felt like it could be a copy of Locke, but then a gremlin (yes, an actual gremlin) shows up and makes her life hell. During this time there's also a literal mystery box on the plane that you're trying to figure out what is in it. Oh, and then there's a Japanese scout plane coming in and out of the clouds that may or may not find them. Moretz shoots the plane down, the gremlin starts taking the plane apart, and the mystery box is a drugged to sleep baby. Then it gets even more bonkers. Moretz crawls on the outside of the plane to get her baby box, they all take on a fleet of enemy planes, the gremlin kills most of the crew, then they crash land. Before credits roll there's some unearned romantic melodrama, a fist fight with the gremlin, and an explosion for good measure. Sigh....this was just bad.

Honestly I don't know why I enjoyed this film. It is dumb, really really dumb. There are so many bad American accents from the New Zealand cast, the stunts are snort out loud ridiculous. But somehow, this film has a visual style and creativity that at times lift it above it's B Movie and proud station. I would be VERY selective about who I recommend it to. I really had fun watching and shaking my head at the silliness and would absolutely watch it again

This might be one of the most entertaining things I’ve ever seen. Simply stupendously sensational stuff.

'Shadow in the Cloud' is bonkers, I had a blast watching it. There were no rejected ideas in the writers room, that’s for certain! I'm glad to see that this hasn't been slaughtered via reviews; at least not to the level I was expecting. It’s utter madness and I’m fully here for it, the amount of craziness they fit into less than 80 or so minutes is nuts; the special effects - aside from the iffy end fight, granted - is neat for a production of this standing.

Chloë Grace Moretz legit gives a great performance, easily her best that I’ve currently seen. The rest of the cast fit their roles well, with the radio comms made great use of for large portions for the cast behind Moretz. I thought it’d get boring being so talky at the beginning, but it never did.

Immense rewatchability to this, I’ll no doubt be revisiting it. It makes absolutely zero sense, like whatsoever, but it might be the best 'switch off your brain' flick out there. No joke. It's unashamedly stupid and I kinda love it; you definitely can't deny its originality either!

I had quite high hopes for this - I liked the premiss. A WWII bomber flight has "Maude" (Chloë Grace Moretz) secreted in the lower gun turret. She has a secret cargo - but what could it be...? As they travel, some of the rather asinine crew become suspicious of her, her package and when they begin to see things; when things start to go a bit awry with the plane - then the crew must brace themselves for quite a surprise! Sadly, though - the execution of this isn't up to much. The acting is poor, the special effects straight from an episode of "Stargate" and the score tries very hard to compensate for the lack of menace generated by either cast or director. The story allows itself to get caught up in the relationship issues of the crew, never a great thing with an adventure film and the ending is just plain daft. Sorry - I love my sci-fi, but this is just really disappointing.

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I consider Chloë Grace Moretz (Greta) one of the best actresses of her generation. I would be pretty surprised if she doesn't get at least an Oscar nomination in the next ten years. While it's true that her choices don't always end up being good movies, she's rarely the one to blame when things don't work out. In Roseanne Liang's film, she's undoubtedly the glue that holds everything together. Moretz perfectly handles what it's close to being a solo movie - she's literally stuck inside a tiny turret - demonstrating extraordinary emotional range.

For most of the runtime, the viewers are placed inside a claustrophobic place, watching the protagonist communicate through radio with the other crew members, who so happen to be extremely sexist, annoying male characters. While I do understand the intent behind this character archetype, it becomes so on the nose that it almost makes the director and her co-writer, Max Landis, the ones who seemingly never met any other type of army men. The narrative holds so many distinct ideas that go from a monster flick to a war drama, and their balance is all over the place, just like the score (Mahuia Bridgman-Cooper).

Once the mystery surrounding her package is revealed, and the action sequences start taking the front stage, the story takes a huge leap into the utterly absurd. From one of the most shockingly hilarious uses of an airplane explosion to the unbelievability of everything that happens in the third act, it isn't easy to shut down my brain when the film until that point was going more for the grounded depiction of how it is to be an isolated woman in the Air Force than a straight-up sci-fi/monster/action flick.

Despite all that, I can't deny its entertainment value and the exceptional lead performance.

Rating: B-