Shadow in the Cloud 4K 2020 Ultra HD 2160p

The movie, which takes place in a rare WW2 setting for the genre, tells the story of the mysterious mission that fell to the lot of Maud Gardner (Chloe Moretz). The girl was appointed commander and ordered to deliver a secret cargo, but everything did not go according to plan and her team was forced not only to fight the Japanese, but also to confront the real monster.

Shadow in the Cloud 4K Review
Already taking off, the bomber is boarded by Maud Gardner (Chloe Moretz), an auxiliary officer, who is carrying a mysterious cargo. The team treats her with skepticism and, despite the prohibitions from the superiors, is trying to figure out the contents of the secret box. However, soon they are not up to it - Japanese fighters appear around, although they had not flown so far before, and a strange creature is crawling along the fuselage trying to break the bomber.

If you still - two days before the start of the Russian distribution - have no idea what kind of movie Air Battle is, then we do not blame you at all. The advertising campaign of the film gives a very implicit idea of ​​its genre and tone, and many viewers will probably be surprised to find right in the middle of a dark cinema hall that this is not just a thriller about the Second World War, but also an extravagant action game with monsters. Moreover, such marketing secrecy, although hardly intentional, is only beneficial to the film - "Air Combat" and he himself does not like to reveal his cards ahead of time. The painting by Rosanna Liang is a kind of cinematic trick, a dramatic shape-shifter in the best traditions of some Edgar Wright.

It is very easy to divide the film into two parts - not similar either in terms of plastic performance or genre. In the first, the heroine of Chloe Moretz is locked in a machine-gun "tower", where she is forced to listen to the talks of toxic men-pilots with their filthy greasy jokes on the radio. She tries to gain confidence in them, while not revealing the purpose of her "secret" mission, and the viewer himself asks the question: who is she? where is it flying? and what the hell is in her box?

The first half (although in fact even more than half) of "Air Combat" is an exemplary hermetically sealed thriller, where the real threat - both gremlin and Japanese fighters - flashes somewhere on the periphery of vision, in the shadows, remains on the border of the real and the psychotic. Naturally, no one believes anyone, and the panic grows until Moretz explodes with a pathetic monologue about a difficult woman's lot. And against this background, the truth about the heroine and her journey is revealed: not too original, but very extraordinary truth.

At one point it may seem that "Air Combat" carries somewhere "not there", towards a catchy poster for all the good and against all the bad. But this is the main focus of the film, the nail of its filigree magic number. When you have already believed in the gloomy seriousness of the local drama, the most interesting thing suddenly begins - Moretz gets out of the "tower", and without unnecessary delay, in the most incredible way: on one hand, clinging to holes from bullets, he climbs right on a flying plane to fill face to the impudent gremlin. The frowning brows of past scenes are just a convenient contrast against which the colorful madness of Air Combat truly flourishes.

Further, Moretz will single-handedly destroy the Japanese and fight a rat-like monster - whose origin the film, by the way, is not at all interested in. Air combat quickly makes it clear that it exists exclusively in the space of myth: military, gender, social. The gremlins themselves are responsible for the military - classic characters of modern folklore, harmful creatures that break airplanes (the famous cartoon "Red Rhapsody" is dedicated to them, where they destroy Hitler's bomber, as well as one of the most famous series of "The Twilight Zone", probably known to you for this meme). Their appearance here does not require explanation, gremlins are an organic part of the myth of the Second World War, many pilots really believed in them. And for "Air Combat" they are the same integral elements of war, like everything else.

The other part of the myth is much more interesting. "Air combat" conditionally fits into the trend of feminist action movies, but at the same time it seems to be doing everything against the rules. If “Wonder Woman” and “Captain Marvel” were looking for a new “sensuality” for the genre and, avoiding the cliché of “battle-women”, tried to emphasize the humanity of their semi-divine heroines, then “Air Combat”, on the contrary, bathes in these stereotypes, he simply delighted. The character Moretz is not just a strong woman, but an absurd personification of everything that people associate with the concept of a “strong woman”. She will enter the burning plane, and the Japanese fighter will stop on the fly, it will comfort those who need it, it will give it in the face if it needs to, and in the meantime it will also have time to feed the child. Surprisingly, it is this hypertrophied approach that “sells” the pathos of the film: even the most cynical viewer will find it difficult to whine about “ubiquitous feminism” when such desperate chaos is taking place on the screen. In general, Disney, learn.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (85.30 Mbps)
Resolution: Upscaled 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.40:1

Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)

Subtitles
German-FORCED-PGS.