I generally like a good apocalyptic movie. I enjoy seeing people try to survive in tough circumstances and the creative problem solving and physical strength they employ. Usually I get motivated for an extra week or two to work out just case I end up in a survival situation (but that never lasts long, just like I wouldn't last long if something actually happened).
How It Ends is one of those movies. Will is visiting his future in-laws in Chicago, hoping to ask for permission to marry their daughter, when a catastrophic event occurs. His girl's dad, played by Forest Whitaker is an ex-Marine so they team up to drive cross-country to Seattle and save her. Along the way they are met with a whole host of challenges, some provided by the environment and some provided by other people trying to survive.
The story line kept me mostly intrigued, and I liked the growth in the relationship between Will and Tom. The acting was okay, nothing groundbreaking. I was most interested in finding out what exactly was happening to the world - the characters were always guessing - military attack from an enemy country? natural disaster? aliens? I couldn't wait to get to the end and find out...
MAJOR SPOILER ALERT...
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I wanted to title my movie review "How It Ends - How does it end?" but Joel said that was a spoiler. So here's the spoiler - the ending kinda sucks! They never explain what the apocalyptic event is! That's the best part of these movies for me and this just didn't have it. So that was annoying. I watched the whole thing just waiting to find out what was destroying the world this time, and they never told us. Lame. Maybe the ambiguity was supposed to make it more frightening? Instead it kind of came off like lazy writing, like the couldn't think of anything good so just decided to do nothing.
SPOILER OVER.
If you have some time on your hands and are in the mood for a survival movie, this one will hit the spot. Otherwise there are better movies to watch!