I actually like a movie about the end of the world. There are interesting sociological questions to be asked about the destruction of civilization, such as, "Is civility something raised in us, or is it a product of our environment?" Stories throughout the centuries have considered this question, such as the famous Lord of the Flies. Here we have another such story, but it is far from a masterpiece in its consideration of the impact of calamity.
How It Ends tells the story of a boyfriend and his partner's father going cross-country to see if their shared loved one has survived some event that has knocked out power and caused a great deal of disruption in the United States. The father doesn't really like the boyfriend much, but they need each other on this trip through the loss of civilization.
There are some good aspects to the movie, I'll grant you. But, for the most part, it gets everything wrong. One thing I liked is that it's a mystery as to what happened. Power, and thus communication, are lost at the beginning, so there is not only a struggle to navigate this new world, but to find out what's going on. Sadly, though, that's about the end of it. Civilization devolves QUICKLY, which makes little sense. Everyone is looking for gas, for instance, but no one is really driving. I don't want to give away too much, but I found the story incredibly hard to believe. Would there be some chaos? Sure. Would people kill each other for gas after three days 2000 miles away from any damage just because of a brief power outage? I'm thinking no. As you get closer to the event, ok, sure, maybe. But the trip just made very little sense to me at all. But if you can just ignore that and try to look at the relationships of the people... well, that wasn't great either. You knew where it was going from the beginning, so there was little enjoyment when you got there.
This movie is very skippable. Kinda interesting for some aspects, but they weren't worth the time, in my opinion.