3 out of 5

Directed by: Roseanne Liang

There are some things not working for Shadow in the Cloud, right from the outset, but then there are some things that very much are working – and to an extent that you know you won’t have to worry about that other pile. Indeed, this duality continues throughout the flick, but co-writer / director Roseanne Liang and star Chloë Grace Moretz land the bigger and more important beats, making you cheer over the moments that are maybe more frustrating.

There’s a bit at the top of the movie that probably / likely spoils something, but this is otherwise a mild spoiler: there’s a gremlin in this flick. The design of the beast is pretty quality, and massive kudos to Liang and her team for choosing shots that put the computer generated bugger against human foes such that you’re never sucked out of the moment. I kept expecting interactions that wouldn’t sell it, but by grounding a lot in some quite visceral effects – i.e. Moretz’s character does not come out unscathed – the focus is kept on our lead, and maybe we’re not as busy eyeballing for CG flaws.

That said, there’s a big, action movie swing in the middle of the film that… doesn’t sell it. Almost to an extreme. Wonky physics are one thing, and you can maybe tell me that the science checks out – though I doubt it – but unfortunately, as a visual medium, we audiences expect some cause and effect, and that tie-in is lacking in this moment, both from director and actor: Moretz seems as unconvinced as we are. Thankfully, this sequence at least elicits a kind of “if only…” romanticism, because it’s a great concept, and it ends with one of the flick’s most ridiculously entertaining gags. So we’re batting even.

The other things I could pick at will slant things too negative, so I won’t go into too much detail, but the choice to pair a WWII horror flick with Carpenter-esque synths is… a choice, but one that largely felt out of place. Similarly, Liang employs some specific lighting for images occurring in Moretz’s character’s thoughts – she’s largely isolated for the first portion of the flick, which is also its strongest – and while I have my theories on the lighting, it feels more stylistic than in sync with the rest of the movie. There’s one large exposition drop in the middle of the movie that does all the story heavy lifting, and Chloë is game for it, but it otherwise could’ve been handled with (no pun intended) a bit more grace, and lastly, and maybe most puzzlingly, there’s some disconnect between events and Moretz’s response to them, which ties into the scene maligned above. There’s a calm-under-pressue nature to her character, but it’s taken to an extreme that makes it almost seem like there’s more going on than what’s going on, and you keep expecting a shoe to drop that never does.

Or rather, the one that does doesn’t quite solve it.

But anyway: in Shadow in the Cloud, RAF Pilot Officer Maude Garrett (Moretz) presents papers to the officers on an American transport plane insisting that she’s to be escorted to their destination on top secret orders. They bicker about dames – I say this offhand, but Liang’s scripting and Moretz’s handling of the back-and-forth are ace – but ultimately allow her on, locking her (for her “safety”) in a lower turret. She communicates solely through radio; we get flashes of her thoughts as impressionistic – how she imagines the men on the place to be – and the camera is locked with her in this small space. When she spots a shadow on the wing – our gremlin – she is, of course, just being hysterical.

This part of the flick is brilliant. And up until that exposition drop, the movie, on a whole, is edge-of-your-seat. From there, it’s as mentioned above – a bit of touch and go, with some cringe moments being washed away a scene later by something awesome: some brutality that sets the stakes; a smart dialogue exchange; some satisfying scares or action.

Coded within some of the cringe is the sense that there’s a camp undertone to the movie, which helps the viewer to swallow one of its main MacGuffins – the top secret package Maude is transporting – but because we start off on more serious beats, and the more successful moments rather stick to that tone, it tickles that “if only…” fancy to give Shadow in the Cloud weighted points where its due.