The Cloverfield Paradox

So here's my history with the Cloverfield franchise.

I watched the first one and almost immediately forgot about it. It wasn't bad, I just didn't care about it that much. Eventually I want to go back and rewatch it but all I really remember about it was that it was a Blair Witch Project-like Godzilla film. Overall, I didn't think it was bad, but I didn't think much of it after that.

Then 10 Cloverfield Lane comes out and suddenly I get intrigued. Not only is it a pretty well done movie, not only was the execution of the film secret and sudden, but the "connection" between these two films was very cerebral and left a lot of questions. Suddenly I was intrigued by the Cloverfield franchise and where they were going.

And then The Cloverfield Paradox was announced on the Superbowl, airing on Netflix immediately after the game. Now I had heard some rumblings a couple weeks before the Superbowl saying that the movie had been bought by Netflix, but I didn't read into it at all. Honestly I went in with a blank slate and unsure of what I was going to get. Was this going to be a true sequel? Was it going to connect the series at all? Was Cloverfield going to be the new Twilight zone? I don't know.

 The Cloverfield Paradox takes place as the world is suffering from an energy crisis. The story centers on a crew of six scientists from around the world who have been sent into space on the Cloverfield Station to test the Shepard particle accelerator. They believe this accelerator will give them sufficient, renewable energy for the world.

But after one of the tests, something goes wrong and the crew needs to find a way to survive the effects of the accelerator and the location it takes them.

I don't want to spoil a lot because there is a lot of intriguing stuff going on in this movie and that's where I give a lot of the credit to the directors, writers, and producers. They start talking about different dimensions and play around with that concept and it is a lot of fun and intriguing.

But here's the thing, while I had a lot of fun with the directions they take the story, there are a lot of elements about this movie that never really get answered. I know JJ Abrams didn't direct this film, but it does have his footprint on it, especially when he brings these really great ideas and questions to the table but doesn't follow through correctly and the pay off is off.

I think Dane Cook said it correctly when he was talking about Lost, but it applies to JJ Abrams in general, "I HAVE 42 NEW QUESTIONS AND NO GOD DAMN ANSWERS" and there will be a couple of those moments in The Cloverfield Paradox.

But that being said, again, I'll mention that it does make sense that Netflix picked this up as there is a lot of science fiction elements that really make you think in this movie and it is a good time. For me, I think I could look past the plot holes and just forgotten plot elements because I really did have a good time with the story and those science fiction elements.

The cast is really great.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw plays Ava Hamilton, the main-ish character of the movie and I don't know who's brilliant idea it was to start giving this gorgeous, very talented actress a lot of leading roles, but continue what you are doing because she is talented AF. I knew her first as the sister of Freema Agyeman's character in Doctor Who, but since she's been in a lot of really great TV and movies like Black Mirror and Beauty and the Beast and she's just an all around talented actress. She does a really good job in this film along with the rest of the cast.

David Oyelowo plays the American Captain, Daniel Bruhl plays a German astrophysicist, John Ortiz plays as Brazilian medic, Chris O'Dowd plays an Irish mechanic, Askel Hennie plays a Russian crew member, and Zhang Ziyi plays a Chinese scientist. They all do a good job.

There are some other characters like Ava's husband, Michael (played by Roger Davies) but the other roles are either insignificant or could ruin the plot so I'll leave it at that.

 Overall, I enjoyed The Cloverfield Paradox, but not enough to say it was the best of the three Cloverfield movies or that it blew my mind or anything. It's fine. I think it does the science fiction, horror genre that Netflix is killing these days nicely, and it brought up some good ideas.

I don't think this movie needed to be as connected to the other Cloverfield movies as much as it was and if this movie hadn't been called Cloverfield, it would have been just fine. I think people went in with bigger expectations than necessary and of course, people were going to be disappointed when it didn't meet those expectations. I think people were waiting for some kind of mind blowing moment, but the reality is, that hasn't really happened with the other Cloverfield movies.

The first one didn't blow my mind, at least not when I first watched it and 10 Cloverfield Lane made me think for sure, but in all reality, a lot of the hype for Paradox came from speculation that we had built up from 10 Cloverfield Lane, probably the best film in the franchise.

If you haven't seen The Cloverfield Paradox yet, I do have one thing to say to you, leave all your expectations at the door. Whether you've seen the previous movies or not, just go into this movie with an open mind because there is a lot to enjoy. You're going to get a movie that has a lot of tastes of other movies like Alien, Black Mirror, etc in it, but it doesn't flow exactly as well as you'd like. There's also a lot to criticize and it is not a perfect movie by any means. 

The fallout of this movie will be interesting because I'm not the only one who was underwhelmed by this movie. So if they want to make more Cloverfield movies, they need to decide what kind of direction they're heading with this film franchise. Is it going to be a Twilight Zone style film series or is it going to be a straight up monster science fiction franchise. I think they've got something really good but Abrams and the people he works with need to figure out where they want to go with it moving forward.

The other interesting fallout of this film is the fact that it was put on Netflix. Now people were really excited about it coming out on Netflix because it was a high budget science fiction film with a diverse cast. However, when the movie released, people couldn't help but feel like it wasn't quite good enough for theaters so streaming services was the obvious choice.

 Here's my thoughts on that. I do think this could have come out in theaters and a lot of people would have gone to see it. I don't think it wasn't good enough for the theaters but it doesn't help that it wasn't that solid of a film.

I want to see more films go straight to streaming services but the weird thing is that the last two movies that I've watched that have done that have been this film and Bright, two films that were fine, but not two films I would put in theaters if it meant that they would be more popular on streaming service.

So I find myself in a conundrum because I do like the theater-going experience but at the same time if there are good movies that are sent directly to streaming service, and Beasts of No Nation is a good example of this, I want that to happen more. What I don't want is for Netflix and other streaming services to be the dumping grounds for mediocre to poor movies that couldn't make enough money in theaters. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

But those are my thoughts on The Cloverfield Paradox. What did you think? Was it overhyped? Was it torn apart unfairly? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. So on a totally unrelated note, there was a new teaser trailer for Venom and I'm gonna be honest, I was really underwhelmed by it because it showed absolutely nothing. I know that's kind of what teaser trailers do, but if I didn't know anything about Venom (which is basically the case) what am I supposed to be excited about in this film? Tom Hardy? Michelle Williams in a black turtleneck? Tom Hardy riding a motorcycle? I don't know! Enjoy!