The Cloverfield Paradox
/"The future unleashed every thing."
Filmology Rating: 2 out of 4
Time travel and parallel dimensions are some of the hardest, yet most compelling science fiction concepts to pull off. Some films try to play with the comedy aspect like Back to the Future and Groundhog Day, but rarely do you get to see high concept science fiction pulled off in a compelling and entertaining way. The only films that come to mind are Arrival, Looper, and Another Earth. All seem like Citizen Kane when compared to The Cloverfield Paradox.
The year 2028, Earth is facing an energy crisis that seems to have no end in sight, so a group of scientists are sent into space to create a new form of energy to empower a world on the verge of war. The crew of the Cloverfield Space Station is successful at creating the new energy, but the moment that they do the Earth mystery vanishes. The crew must put all differences aside to discover what happened to the Earth and why it happened before the fabric of reality itself is torn apart.
Until 2016 I had never realized that I wanted a Cloverfield anthology series. It was like being handed your favorite ice cream for the first time and you had no idea what you were missing until you tried it and now that is the only kind of ice cream you want. With 10 Cloverfield Laneyou added some chocolate and caramel sauces to the ice cream adding in a different flavor while still getting the ice cream that you love.
Then The Cloverfield Paradox comes along and adds some nuts to your ice cream, while this might look appealing you quickly realize that you are allergic to the nuts. While those nuts have not ruined your ice cream, you still cannot eat it no matter how appetizing it looks. I wish I could say that The Cloverfield Paradox looks as spectacular as the sundae but the film looks cheaper than the homemade sundae, not to mention that reaction to the actual taste of the film.
On paper, the cast for The Cloverfield Paradox should be outstanding. You have Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who was phenomenal in Belle and was a great sparring partner again Jessica Chastain in Miss Sloane, David Oyelowo, who delivered the performance of a lifetime in Selma, Daniel Brühl, who explored the new world after the fall of the Berlin Wall in Good Bye Lenin! and helped most care about Indycar racing in Rush, I could go on naming more who round out the cast of The Cloverfield Paradox, but the point is that while the cast is phenomenal they aren’t given anything to work with. Most filmgoers like to watch films with compelling and engaging characters but you only find mere traces of those elements in this film, which is completely heartbreaking. I would like to think that the entire cast believed in this project, but I rarely felt that spark.
What The Cloverfield Paradox feels like most is a CliffNotes version of a better film. You can tell that the film has some entrancing ideas and wants to pull you into some philosophical pondering, but with the film being a brisk 102 minutes instead of the two and a half hour long science fiction opus, you find yourself craving. The opening of the film travels nearly two years worth of time in a matter of minutes, which to some might be exciting, however I found myself wanting to know more about the science of the future, rather than heavy handed exposition that I was later given. Now I could be giving screenwriters Oren Uziel and Doug Jung a lot of misplaced credit, especially since Uziel scripted Shimmer Lake last year which was another film that showed an outstanding premise but then came across as a bland thoughtless piece of filmmaking, but since I love the high level concepts which the film is attempting to tackle, I seem to be willing to give the creative team the benefit of the doubt.
On a side note, when I first saw during Super Bowl LII that Netflix acquired the rights to show this installment in the Cloverfield franchise I was infuriated. How could Paramount sell off a film that is meant to be seen on the biggest screen? At least that’s what I assumed since the previous films were complete cinematic experiences, however after now experiencing the film I understand that Paramount decided that it’s better to cut its losses and release the film in the most exciting way possible, promising a unique film experience like no other, hoping that the unique distribution technique will distract from the actual act of watching the film. After watching The Cloverfield Paradox I found the experiment to have failed, since I was given a product that diminishes the entire Cloverfield brand.
It always feels reassuring that movie studios are still making high concept science fiction movies, even if the film fails to deliver any meaningful dialogue to advance the genre. It’s always better to shoot for the stars, even if you know that you cannot make it. The Cloverfield Paradox aims incredibly high, but it never finds itself leaving the troposphere.
Rating: Skip It
-Jonny G