“The Cloverfield Paradox” Review: In Space, No One Can Hear You Stream
Almost a decade to the day that the first Cloverfield caught the attention of millions, The Cloverfield Paradox represents a lot that’s changed in your typical mystery box sci-fi mystery monster flick thriller… And how audiences watch movies. In 2008 the Cloverfield craze started with an anonymous trailer, followed by a marketing campaign known for secrecy and finding the next clue. Advance the clock to 2018, and The Cloverfield Paradox marks another first: a finished film released online within just hours of the first trailer airing during the Super Bowl.
Collaborators mounted a similar effort just two years ago, but with a longer turn-around… Dan Trachtenberg’s 10 Cloverfield Lane grossed more than 100 million dollars after a month-long advertising blitz for a movie that couldn’t be more different from the original; a follow-up to a city-scale disaster, bound to a single bomb shelter with monsters lurking outside.
Finding out there’s a new Cloverfield movie in between the whistles of the Super Bowl is one thing; even better when I know I can see it without ever leaving my couch. But would we still be talking about the original Cloverfield 10 years later if the movie itself weren’t good? Would the allure of that movie still be as strong had audiences left without the satisfaction of a self-contained, inventive horror movie with a handheld camera twist? My gut says, had The Cloverfield Paradox been the first of these movie revealed, Cloverfield would be less of a trendsetter and more of a good-minded effort gone wrong.
The Cloverfield Paradox feels rushed, misguided and aimless; a mess of a project that ultimately leaves a bad taste in your mouth. The past two Cloverfield movies have worked by giving little glimpses of what’s really going on, little hints as to what happened before, and sometimes after the invasion of the first film. Paradox reveals the most of this put-together trilogy so far, but none of the answers are as interesting as even the title implies.
Set in 2028, most of the film takes place aboard a spaceship full of scientists looking for an answer to an energy crisis back on earth. Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Daniel Bruhl, Chris O’Dowd and more play our heroes who find even more questions to answer when their home planet disappears out from under them in an experiment gone wrong. Roger Davies keeps the action centered on the ground, with most of his character’s lines spoken over the phone, trying to piece together what exactly is going on in a line of destruction that’ll look similar to anyone that’s recently revisited the first Cloverfield.
The film’s cast is by far the film’s biggest strength; and is also the largest group of characters compared to the rest of the series. Elizabeth Debicki, who many will recognize from her golden role in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, appears in a wrinkle to the Paradox mystery, as well as recent Oscar nominee for playing Martin Luther King Jr., David Oyelowo. Chris O’Dowd carries a lot of the film’s tension-soothing humor, although more often than not the jokes disrupt any momentum the movie has going for it.
If you do decide to embark on what adventures Paradox promises, make sure you set your stopwatch. The further you get into this movie, after the puzzle pieces are laid out and the mystery is presented, the more Paradox becomes a “greatest hits” compilation of space horror clichés and oddball happenings patched together. The movie essentially becomes a haunted house of callbacks to better sci-fi movies you’ve seen a hundred times, surprisingly great special effects wasted on a half-baked story, and the worst possible decisions made by what’s supposed to be carefully selected scientists, hand-picked to save the world.
Brought side by the side with the two movies that came before it, Paradox’s cardinal sin becomes clear: both Cloverfield and 10 Cloverfield Lane are exciting, efficient movies, before ties to a greater story being put together become clear. I’d recommend both to anyone, regardless if they have any clue the movies be loosely connected. For a movie to be released instantly to over 100 million subscribers that can watch the movie with a press of their remote, The Cloverfield Paradox is a movie best, and perhaps only enjoyed, by Cloverfield completionists.
3 out of 10
