I find it strange that Cloverfield turned into a franchise. Must be the power of monsters and JJ Abrams. The Cloverfield Paradox sorta fits into the rest of the franchise: it is a well acted sci-fi film that asks a lot of questions: too many questions in fact.
We’ve hit a point in the Earth’s resources where we’ve run out of energy on the planet to sustain life. So Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal, and….wait, sorry, their movie started the same. In this movie, Schmidt (Daniel Bruhl) has designed a potential sustaining energy source to be tested in space. The mission is run by Kiel (David Oyelowo), and helped by Hamilton (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), Monk (John Ortiz), Mundy (Chris O’Dowd), Volkov (Aksel Hennie), and Tam (Ziyi Zhang). However, when they test the energy source, as expected, strange things start to happen.
The Cloverfields’ success is due to forces outside the actual film (I’ll circle back to the film in a sec). The hype and marketing campaign around each film was quite stellar, teasing found footage, or terrifying creatures without and within. The Cloverfield Paradox might have the best idea: Netflix created a Super Bowl ad teasing the film, then promptly released the movie 2 hours later. Great idea for the instant gratification crowd! So the movie really probably needs one great twist to keep viewers watching. However, The Cloverfield Paradox cannot deliver on that front. The movie, like 10 Cloverfield Lane, mines decent thrills and tense viewing with the claustrophobia around the crew and the results of using the energy device. Like a good horror movie, it shows us VERY little, and insinuates a lot with noises, creepy images, and claustrophobia. However, also like the other films, once the movie starts answering those questions, it just leaves angry, dumb questions behind: Where did the creepy hand go? Why does the strange woman on the ship find reasons to hate one of the crew members? Why does doing the same thing mean a reset button? These large logic gaps are also not helped by the movie thinking we care about the people on Earth; the cuts to the pointless subplot there grind the story to a halt and will leave you rolling your eyes, because you know it’s just there to set you up for the big twist which you see coming miles away because the STORY EXPLAINS WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN THE FIRST 5 MINUTES. Much of The Cloverfield Paradox’s goodwill is gone because of the dumb choices the script makes to keep the story moving.
JJ Abrams sure does have some clout, casting wise though. The great cast goes a long way to making sure the Cloverfield franchise will continue. Along with the marketing campaign, I will probably remember Gugu Mbatha-Raw. I’ve liked her for some time now (Beyond the Lights is a favorite), and it’s good to see her in a lead role again; she gets a big monologue near the end which she nails. Daniel Bruhl is solid as well, playing the cryptic and quiet Schmidt. David Oyelowo, Ziyi Zhang, Aksel Hennie, and especially John Ortiz deliver their tech nonsense or religious belief ably, like true pros. Chris O’Dowd is fun for what he is, but he’s overplaying the comic relief. Maybe he got a different script, because it seems like there must have been hundreds for this movie.
The Cloverfield Paradox is a reference to the story in the film, but for me, it’s how a terrific marketing campaign can be coupled with such a mediocre film. And how does JJ Abrams get all these terrific actors to star in something so unfulfilling? Do they get 4 pages of the script that shows the best moment for their character and they’re in? That must be it, totally explains why the man who was so good as MLK would take a thankless role of nice leader in this forgettable feature.