Review Of How It Ends, AKA: How Netflix Will Mediocre Itself Out Of Business

By Dave B.

​How It Ends (Netflix) is a nearly two-hour long snoozefest about Will (Theo James) and his soon-to-be father-in-law Tom (Forest Whitaker) racing across the country to save Samantha (Kat Graham), Will’s soon-to-be baby mama and Tom’s daughter, after some vague apocalyptic event occurs. I’m not sure how someone can make a $20,000,000 movie about the apocalypse where almost nothing actually happens, but Netflix is an innovative company and they somehow managed it. 

​In fairness, it’s clear that the writer of this movie wanted to do a more character-driven apocalypse story. Unfortunately, that becomes difficult when audiences aren’t given much insight into the characters and when onscreen character evolution is spurred by predictable events that are few and far between. Everything about the movie is bland. The script, the performances, the camerawork…everything. And the ending…I’m not going to give any spoilers, but the last act of How It Ends is completely cliché, predictable, unnecessary, unfulfilling garbage. 

​How It Ends isn’t the worst movie that I’ve seen, but it is completely in line a lot of Netflix Original science-fiction movies: decent concept, poor execution, terrible ending. Maybe not today and maybe not tomorrow, but someday, if Netflix keeps spending billions of dollars a year on so much original content that is barely watchable (at best), a halfway decent competitor will step in and eventually wipe them out. It’s a shame, because Netflix clearly has the ability to create great original content, but has instead decided to pursue a “spray and pray” approach to production. Anyways, I do not recommend How It Ends, unless you enjoy boredom and disappointment or are a glutton for punishment.

Rating: 4.5/10