CHLOE GRACE MORETZ started as a child actress on TV and films.
At 12, she got her best role as the young vampire in “Let Me In” and as Hit Girl in the action flick, “Kick-Ass” and its sequel. She’d later do more films like “Hugo”, “Dark Shadows”, “Hick”, “If I Stay”, “The Fifth Wave”, “November Criminals”, the remake of “Carrie” and “Greta”.
She now stars in “Shadow in the Cloud”, a period sci-fi action film made by a New Zealand film company.
Set in 1943, she plays Maude Garette, a flight officer who boards a B-17 bomber plane called Fool’s Errand carrying a metal box which she says has valuable secret documents and cannot be opened. The plane leaves Auckland, New Zealand for Samoa.
At first, the all male crew wouldn’t let her in but she says she has all the necessary documents to prove that she is a legit passenger of that flight.
She is accommodated but she is made to sit in the plane’s turret, a very small compartment in the plane’s underbelly. It will be her home for the next 30 to 40 minutes.
We see her trapped in there when she sees a scary, ugly bat-like winged creature clinging on the plane’s wing.
She reports it by the intercom to the crew on top but they ignore her and just dismiss her warnings.
They all belittle her and make fun of her with offensive sexist remarks.
The crew eventually sees the frightening monster and calls it a gremlin.
On top of this, Japanese fighter planes are also attacking them.
Maude finally succeeds to get out of the turret and, as things get from bad to worse, she even manages to fly the crashing plane and land it to safety when its pilot was killed by enemy fire.
Moretz does well as the courageous heroine. There’s a big twist in the story which, of course, we cannot reveal.
The film apparently spouses feminist politics and an unabashed tribute to women who fought with the British and American forces during the war. The ending shows actual footage of many women serving in various capacities as homage to them.
The film is directed by Chinese-New Zealander filmmaker Roseanne Liang, but she’s no Chloe Zhao of “Nomadland” since she chooses to do an escapist fantasy action flick with feminist overtones denouncing the mistreatment of women by chauvinistic men.
As a popcorn flick, it has its jump scares and exciting moments as an action-adventure movie in mid-air, with Chloe perfect as the feisty protagonist who even saves the repulsive men who were earlier jeering her and kills the monster singlehandedly with her own bare hands.
The monster is obviously CGI green screen but it’s quite frighteningly convincing.
The film runs for less than an hour and a half but the first half with Chloe all alone in the turret seems quite boring.
The final half is more action-filled and seems completely removed from the first, which demonstrates that the movie is actually trying to be many things smashed together, as symbolized by the Looney Tunes cartoon that serves as its prologue.
Some parts are no doubt fun and goofy, some are tense and exciting, but major suspension of disbelief is most certainly required.
