The Cloverfield Paradox

I love sci-fi. I LOVE it. So I've seen dozens of these average forgettable sci-fi b-movies. With this one it looks like they followed some sort of "generic sci-fi b-movie checklist". Let's get to the point:

-Generic b-movie plot.

-Generic physics mambo jambo that makes no sense.

-Generic crew. Generic characters making obvious mistakes (I mean, if a magnet is strongly and dangerously attracting metal objects, would you get close to look at the magnet? or would you look behind you for metal objects coming through??)

-Generic "we move power from system A to system B and that would fix everything!" plans.

-Generic "ok, to fix this part of the ship, someone has to die... I'll sacrifice myself for you guys, go! save yourselves!" altruism moments.

-Almost no character development. They try SO HARD (failing) to make us care about the main character, that when a generic crew member dies, you just don't even care.

-Has almost nothing to do with Cloverfield. And the "explanation" of why cloverfield happened it's just bland... I wish Cloverfield's explanation would still be a mistery.

I really wanted to like this, I really did. I loved Cloverfield and even 10 Cloverfield Lane, but this is just a flop.

It's no mistake now that the team behind the Cloverfield series is simply purchasing films that are already shot or written and re-working them to fit within their "world". This entry into the series is no different, but at least we have a direct connection and explanation for things, which make this film the main one that will connect every single 'Cloverfield' entry from here on out.

In an attempt to produce endless energy, a group of people board a space shuttle known as The Shepard. Over 600 days in space with failure after failure, they finally manage to create something. But that something is not what they expected and now they have to fight to survive and deal with the horrors they've unleashed.

There is a moment in the film that is pure exposition, delivered by Donal Logue that really felt forced in there to be an explanation for the monster in the original film. It was such an awkward jumble of words that it stands out like a sore thumb. I felt like they could have delivered this information a bit differently, by someone on the ship maybe. There are other moments of missed opportunities as well, specifically when you are dealing with time paradoxes and alternate realties.

The film tries to deliver a sense of dread, but it doesn't really get there. There are moments where the weirdness explodes and we are dealing with severed limbs still working or body horror involving eyes and skin. I get the sense that they wanted these weird occurrences to really amp of the mystery. Sometimes it works, other times it does not. As a whole though, the film does deliver an edge of your seat sic/fi space survival flick.

Paramount clearly thought they had a stinker on their hands, which is why they dumped the film to Netflix. Saying this film sucks is a disservice to the material. It's ambitious enough to try and create a connecting tissue to the other films and anything else that Bad Robot wants to come up with. I applaud that, as well as their explanation for why things happened, to me is good enough. This film will be the most divisive one yet, that is clear.

When this movie got released it got bad review let, right, and center. Even I was not expecting a Cloverfield sequel to be a groundbreaking film. So I also ignored the film after putting it on watchlist.

Today I just put it on and watched it with below zero expectations and it turned out much better. It surprised me.

Firstly what I liked about this movie is the Lovecraftian vibe it had. Space, Madness, Insanity, Existential dread, horrors from other dimension (none shown in this film but discussed).

It had some pacing issues, and editing issues just overlook them (coz it is not a masterpiece. Watch it to enjoy the sci-fi). I am glad I gave it a try.

I am almost 65 years old, and have been a fan of science-fiction all my life. I never heard of Cloverfield and did not know that it was some sort of series until I started reading some of the other reviews on this page. Having no prior knowledge of Cloverfield, I was able to approach the film without any preconceived bias and judge the movie entirely on its own merit. There are very few films that present any truly unique science-fiction idea, but this movie does succeed in blending some old ideas into a new and unique combination. I found this to be a very enjoyable science-fiction film. Although this movie had its share of scientific inaccuracies, I simply attribute them to the fact that the story takes place in an alternate universe where our scientific laws do not all necessarily hold true. This is an unusual science-fiction tale, blended with a touch of horror similar to "Event Horizon". The plot is very interesting. The acting is excellent. The special effects are great. The story is suspenseful. I found this film to be a worthwhile piece of entertainment.

I really enjoyed it, so I really don't get the hate.

I genuinely think it's a pretty good space flick, it may just be the fact that is has the word "Cloverfield" in it or that it is attached to that universe as to why it gets so much hate.

Pretty freaky, I wouldn't say scary, maybe 1 or 2 jump scares, even a few laugh out loud moments 'cause of your man from the 'I. T crowd' and it looks brilliant, great effects and visuals I have to say.

There's a lot of grey areas with the characters, the heels aren't even full on heels, which is what I like. It also has a feel good feel to it, or does it? You'll have to find out...

To me it felt a lot like Cube/Cube 2 (first one is defo worth a watch BTW) as I just kept waiting for the next weird and crazy thing to happen and wasn't disappointed.

Honestly don't be put off by the reviews or score I honestly think if this was called something different it wouldn't catch all the hate.

It's an better than an above average sci-fi film, it's a good sci-fi film. Gutted we haven't seen some sort of equal or another installment in the CCU.

So anyway, give it a try for yourself, you've already got the streaming service, so it's free, may as well!