My Personal Thoughts on "The Cloverfield Paradox"

in #story6 years ago (edited)

A couple of days ago, anybody watching this year's Superbowl were in for a treat given their mandatory annual line-up of highly anticipated movie trailers. However, the biggest surprise came from terrestrial television streaming behemoth, Netflix. During an event break, there was an announcement that straight after the Superbowl, they would be premiering the third instalment of the Cloverfield franchise. Some marketing move, right? And oddly coincidental given my recent enthusiastic thoughts regarding the original Cloverfield and 10 Cloverfield Lane not too long ago. Did this cunningly ingenious marketing ploy, costing Netflix a whopping $50 million, live up to the lofty heights of it's two wildly successful predecessors?

1.jpg

It is 2028 and the Earth is fast running out of resources to sustain it's billions of inhabitants. In a global initiative sanctioned by space agencies around the world, a particle accelerator is built, named "Shepard", which is to be shuttled off into orbit aboard the space station "Cloverfield". It's main purpose being to allow the planet an almost infinite supply of necessary energy through it's use. However, many back on Earth argue against this course of action, warning of the possibilities of opening up portals to other dimensions and thus forming a gateway for "other worldly creatures" to come through. Of the seven-strong crew aboard "Cloverfield", one of them is Ava Hamilton (played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw). She reluctantly left her home planet behind as well as her husband Michael (played by Roger Davies), both of whom are still in mourning over a house fire that killed their children. After several failed attempts, "Shepard" eventually fires at full capacity, but with it comes unexpected devastating after-effects that bring about the merging of several realities all at once. Throwing our crew members into turmoil and thus leading to a race against time to get back to the world they originally came from.

Given the "bolt out of the blue" nature of this movie, there was barely enough time to prepare for what was to come. Within the first few minutes, I was amazed by the grandiose settings they went for in outer space. The interior designs of the ship were all pleasingly re-created and certainly did look the part, showcasing the substantial budget being used. It must be said that there was a minor sub-plot back on Earth running in conjunction with the main story. Scenes of a ravaged city landscape and chaotic atmosphere were all pulled off pretty well, with subtle usage of effects work to show that things are not what they appear to be on planet Earth. And that nicely leads me into a few significant issues with the movie. Yes, there are elements that relate back to the previous two entries in the series, but their correlation is vague and inconsequential at best. In other words, there is a lot of "filling in of the gaps" at play here. And the guesswork involved comes solely from our own imaginations. In some ways, it tries to be too clever for it's own good when all audiences really want is an out-and-out direct sequel to the original masterpiece, as promised many times before in the past. Becoming too bogged down with convoluted lore and too little information to guide us, hampers any meaningful impact The Cloverfield Paradox could have had. Sadly, the problems don't end there.

Apart from a decent enough performance from Mbatha-Raw as Ava, the rest of the cast turn in very lacklustre roles. In particular, veteran actor Chris O'Dowd who plays Mundy as one of the ship's crew members. His acting is so bad at times, I honestly had to shield my eyes away from the true horror I was witnessing. Terrible to the "nth" degree, where his reactions to certain situations were nothing short of plain ludacris. Whether this was down to the script writers or his own personal take on the character, I just don't know. But a car crash it most certainly was. Which is an unfortunate missed opportunity because I still believe everything got off to a solid start early on. The premise of a multiverse with different tears in the fabric of overlapping realities, is an interesting one, to put it mildly. But here, it just doesn't seem to work as it should. The pacing of the movie tries to dictate a sort of urgency throughout, but with a mediocre story-line in place, the end result is a bit of a tiresome snooze fest. And to add insult to injury, the final shot of the movie is where things actually start to get much more interesting. A frustrating, uncalled-for tease that makes the whole sordid experience venture into the territory of red-faced annoyance.


This is a masterclass in how "not" to publicize a movie. Apparently, Paramount were quite eager to sell their film onto Netflix for that $50 million price tag and it's no wonder why at all. After a relatively strong opening, dealing with some intriguing themes ripe for further exploration, the final product is a dud. Not enough exposition in dealing with the pertinent factors tying all the events of the past together and instead inflicting us all with a few crude allusions to what we already know. I can only hope the fourth movie, which is about to enter production soon by the sounds of it, rectifies the damning errors of The Cloverfield Paradox. What a calamitous travesty in every respect...

My Verdict: (4/10)

PAGE-DIVIDER.jpg

*Source: (1,2,3,4)

Hope you enjoyed this post, please look out for more on the way... (author: @ezzy)


Sort:  

While flipping through Netflix the other day I saw this on the feed. I didn't have time to watch a movie (but watched Norsemen instead - hilarious!)

Shame they dropped the ball on this one and thanks for the warning about it, buddy. :D

Oh yes, buddy! They made a train wreck of this movie. Good call on watching Norseman instead. Let's hope the next Cloverfield turns out better. A lot better... :)

Ouch! I had intended to watch it this weekend, but now I'm seriously considering it. I've read somewhere that this wasn't supposed to be a Cloverfield sequel, and that it's originally entitled "The God Particle". The addition of the Cloverfield stuff was just to help with the marketing, and since JJ Abrams was producing it, they thought about just adding it to the mythos. If it wasn't a Cloverfield sequel, would your opinion change about it?

I was a big fan of The IT Crowd, so I'm saddened that Chris O'Dowd disappointed in this.

You are right, it was supposed to be called "The God Particle" but had the Cloverfield brand pinned on at the very final hour. How J. J. Abrams didn't have more of a pull on this films firection, I don't know. But no, even without the Cloverfield brand name association, it still ends up a poor movie.

Also, so glad you like The IT Crowd too! Yes, a real shame Chris O'Dowd disappointed so bad in this latest outing.

Great job getting the Sci-Fi community rolling here on Steemit! I'm an author and I've come here to blog my stories, so I'm glad to see the beginnings of a cool space we can discuss these stories we love so much.

Bummer you didn't like The Cloverfield Paradox. I've just gotten into the franchise recently and I've been watching to see how people react.

Hey buddy! Glad you're into sci-fi as much as I am (or maybe more so, lol)! Yeah, this movie didn't do it for me. Though I "do" love the franchise as a whole and consider myself one of the biggest Cloverfield fans out there. :)

Ehy @ezzy, thanks for another great review. I actually appreciated this one, because I wasn't sure what to think of this movie. I love well-thought sci-fi, and something about this movie was screaming "cheap product" to me. After reading your thoughts, I think I'd better skip this one, concentrating on my very long list of to-watch movies.

Hey there, buddy! Thanks very much! Yeah, this was a bit of a stinker and I so get what you mean by "cheap product". Oh well, let's see how they hopefully fix things up next time. :)

I only watch movies that rated above 7. 😛
Seems like you can watch everything !! And i always thought I was a movie fan !! 🤔

3D273C68-3FC3-4F4F-BDB8-4BBCB1510867.png

Lol! I've do love movies immensely... And discussing them. Not much to say about The Cloverfield Paradox though, lol. :)

ME TOO !!! But i am more of a science fiction fan 🎬

I just watched this movie 24 hrs ago and I have to say I totally agree with you. It had the makings of something truly amazing but it didn't even nearly get there. It totally lacked in character development (which always leads to bad acting) and it never progressed any of its concepts e.g. a dead person left behind in a different dimension would contribute to the paradox as well as if that person were alive. Script was weak. :) Peace

Concur with every word you said. What a crying shame, eh?

I only recently saw a billboard for this, but I did not realize it was on Netflix. Honestly, it looks like Netflix has had a recent string of bombs, at least according to the buzz I've heard: Bright, I heard that their sci-fi series Altered Carbon was mostly bad, and now this. It's a shame - I'd love to see some good sci-fi being produced.

Have you watched The Expanse on Sci-Fi​? That has been pretty damned good, and it got me interested in reading the book series.

Yeah, this movie dropped out of the sky like that "vague" satellite at the end of the first movie, lol. Netflix can be "hit or miss" at the best of times, but this effort was a definite MISS!!!

Thanks for recommending The Expanse. Will defo be checking it out... :)

The Expanse is one of my favorite TV series, probably one of the best things I've seen in the last two years. Good Sci-Fi is very hard to come by, and The Expanse never disappoints. Even those characters who are somehow mundane or shallow (oh hey, Holden, I didn't see you standing there) are so well-placed in the general order of things that you don't actually get to hate them.

I still have to watch Altered Carbon, is it that bad? I was planning on watching it very soon.

I can't speak from first-hand experience about Altered Carbon. It was one review I read - said it looks great, but it's mostly pretty shallow story- and writing-wise. I'll still probably check it out to see for myself.

But damn - I keep checking IMDb to see when The Expanse starts up again. :)

Me too :) I'm actually re-watching the first two seasons with my brother, who hadn't watched it yet. It is something I do sometimes when I think a series is particularly worthwhile, I take the opportunity to enjoy little details that I missed on the first run and teach a little bit of English to my brother, too :)

thanks for sharing, very useful

$50 million dollars? that's relatively huge well the story doesn't seem bad, however I feel it wasn't crafted well, I still feel the movies needs a big name like Tom Cruise, being a science fantasy fiction, however not bad I give it a 6/10

6/10? Wow, that's real generous, lol! :)

Thank you for the review, I'm not going to watch it x)

You won't be missing much. :)

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.19
TRX 0.12
JST 0.027
BTC 60626.97
ETH 3358.90
USDT 1.00
SBD 2.45