Netflix’s “How It Ends” Good, but Unfulfilling
For weeks, I waited on Netflix to unveil its new original film “How It Ends”. It starred Forest Whitaker, who I really like, and the trailer looked exciting. Hey, the movie was exciting, I just didn’t care for how It ends. See what I did there?
SPOILER ALERT! I don’t want to blow it for you if you haven’t seen it. I enjoyed the movie, but there was no payoff. There was no resolution. Remember “Cloverfield”? It hit me like “Cloverfield” did. You watch this exciting movie and then you never get to see how it ends. See what I did there…again.
“How It Ends” is set between Seattle & Chicago. A lawyer and his girlfriend have moved from Chicago to Seattle. Girl’s dad (Forest Whitaker) is a retired Army Colonel who doesn’t care for her lawyer boyfriend and blames him for taking his daughter away to another city. So now we have the “tension” we need to start a story as the lawyer travels back to Chicago for a meeting at the Home Office of his firm and has agreed to dinner with girl’s mom and dad. Dinner doesn’t go well by the way.
Next morning, as lawyer face times with his girl, something happens that leads us to believe it’s an earthquake in Seattle. Is it? Lawyer heads back to girl’s parents and lawyer and her dad head across country to rescue the girl as they have lost all communication with her. The movie is pretty much about that journey and the encounters along the way. We have many questions though as viewers? Why does the entire country lose cell service and power due to a west coast earthquake? Is this an invasion, alien or terrestrial? Is this the pilot for a series that’s coming to Netflix? It wasn’t presented that way. Did it leave things open for sequel film? You bet it did, but don’t hold your breath.
Good film as most of these Netflix original’s are, but it left the story unresolved and this viewer, unfulfilled. SPOILER ALERT: Below is the trailer and an “explanation” of the ending. Forest Whitaker Photo by Monica Schipper: Getty Images
