The Cloverfield Paradox had an interesting idea at its core, likely whatever remained of the original script God Particle, but the execution, and forcing it to be part of the Cloverfield franchise, just was not well thought out.
The Cloverfield Paradox
(2018)
Genre(s): Science Fiction, Suspense/Thriller
Paramount | PG13 – 101 min. – $22.98 | February 5, 2019
Date Published: 02/15/2019 | Author: The Movieman
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Paramount provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 2.0/5 |
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“Logic doesn’t apply to any of this.” The Cloverfield Paradox is a movie based off of a spec script entitled The God Particle and then turned into the next chapter of the Cloverfield franchise. Now, I really liked the first film (which says something as I generally hate found footage) and its sequel, 10 Cloverfield Lane was one tense thriller; however that was originally adapted from a scripted called The Cellar; however, the elements of the monster are minimized somewhat, outside of the third act, and was still an effective thriller. Now we’re going outer space and, I guess, get the origins of the monster, which of course was not the plan. And boy, despite some okay scenes, not hard to see why this was ultimately dumped onto Netflix.
The Cloverfield Paradox takes place ten years into the future and energy resources have all but been depleted with rolling blackouts and the rush to develop free, clean, renewable energy via a science experiment being conducted on a space station orbiting just outside of earth. Through a montage over the opening credits, the experiment goes on for a couple years with failure after failure (600+ if I recall) and at the start of the movie, the multinational crew only have a few tests left before they run out of fuel. The crew is comprised of American commander Jason Kiel (DAVID OYELOWO), British engineer Ava Hamilton (GUGU MBATHA-RAW), German physicist Ernst Schmidt (DANIEL BRUHL), Brazilian doctor Monk Acosta (JOHN ORTIZ), Irish engineer Gordon Mundy (CHRIS O’DOWD), Russian engineer Sasha Volkov (AKSEL HENNIE) and Chinese engineer Ling Tam (ZHANG ZIYI.) With the passage of time, tempers flare and when their final experiment to initiate the particle accelerator has a catastrophic failure, they are tossed off course. Upon inspection, they cannot find their bearings and it would appear the earth has completely disappeared.
The premise behind The Cloverfield Paradox, likely when it was originally conceived as The God Particle, was interesting. An experiment goes awry and the aftermath is the earth has disappeared. Let the psychological horror commence (though even then, there are problems). Forcing this into being a part of the Cloverfield franchise would be fine, but there are so many stupid parts with characters making dumb decisions that it was hard to really be entertained, especially when one’s mind gravitates toward thinking of Star Trek: The Next Generation with the darker tones of Star Trek Discovery. The Cloverfield Paradox might be bad, or at best poorly conceived, but that doesn’t mean it’s terrible. First, at no point was I mad, I just had to chuckle at some parts, but secondly, the cast do what they can to overcome some bad dialogue and/or the lame aspects of the plot. Gugu Mbatha-Raw, whom I’ve been a fan of since Beyond the Lights, for her part in what was essentially the lead, had some nice scenes; David Oyelowo does well as the stoic leader; Elizabeth Debicki was utterly creepy and unnerving; Daniel Brühl gets some decent character moments; and Chris O’Dowd had a few humorous scenes, albeit sometimes at odd moments (like when the ship’s wall takes his arm; yeah, that happened with no explanation).
The film was directed by Julius Onah, marking his second feature-length film following the 2015 crime-drama, The Girl is in Trouble. I can’t fault the film on Onah as it does seem well shot at least and I can’t say the direction itself felt boring. Instead, beyond the script (which I still say had potential), the editing wasn’t the best, especially from time to time going back to earth as the monster is attacking. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2.25/5 |
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This release comes with a glossy slip cover and the only features included is Things are Not as They Appear: The Making of The Cloverfield Paradox (14:23; HD) making-of featurette and Shepard Team: The Cast (14:48) introducing the audience to the ensemble. |
VIDEO – 4.5/5 |
| Paramount releases The Cloverfield Paradox is presented with a 2.40 widescreen aspect ratio and given a 1080p high-definition transfer. This at least is a good looking movie. Detail is sharp throughout and colors, even with the darker tone, still have a vibrancy to them, including the purplish hue of the accelerator while black levels are fairly stark. |
AUDIO – 5.0/5 |
| Nice to see despite not getting a 4K release (which kind of stinks for those who own the other two on the format), that this received a Dolby Atmos track and it does not disappoint. Along with the clear dialogue coming from the center channel, the front and rear speakers get a nice workout, particularly during the god particle testing sequence and the space walk scene toward the end which really gives the film some excellent depth. |
OVERALL – 2.25/5 |
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Overall, The Cloverfield Paradox had an interesting idea at its core, likely whatever remained of the original script God Particle, but the execution and forcing it to be part of the Cloverfield franchise, and giving reason for the monster, just was not well thought out and it’s not hard to see why this ultimately went to Netflix. The Blu-ray release offers up great video/audio transfers and so-so bonus material. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.