The Cloverfield Paradox

Nonsensical utter garbage in space. The people behind this story should be forbidden to go near a keyboard because a plot like this is borderline criminal.

I wasn't expecting much from The Cloverfield Paradox, so I was pleasantly surprised when it ended up delivering a pretty satisfying movie.

The tie in to the Cloverfield universe was a little thin, and after reading how the movie came to be, I understand.

Don't go in to the movie expecting to hate it because other people did. Just enjoy it for it for what it is.

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 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.

Well, about 30 minutes in and you realize why Paramount decided to release via Netflix. I don't think anyone who loved cloverfield will be particularly taken by this film. And to those people who felt cloverfield lane was a bait and switch, they will really feel betrayed by this film. The acting in this film is respectable. The effects, set and the like are fine. But the dull plot is not overcome by having a single character to care about.