The Cloverfield Paradox (D+ or 1/4 stars)
Released unexpectedly on Netflix during the night of the 2018 Super Bowl, 'The Cloverfield Paradox' (a sci-fi thriller directed by Julius Onah - and originally titled The God Particle) is a BIG step down from 2008's the original Cloverfield, a found-footage monster flick, and 2016's 10 Cloverfield Lane, a paranoia thriller. And though there is a 'monster', the connection btwn. those 2 films and this one is faint. The story is as follows: Earth is quickly running out of its resources and a desperate mission is launched to fire a particle accelerator to create new forms of energy for sustenance {easy to understand, right? – shoot me}.
After many months in space, the mission team -- Kiel (David Oyelowo), Hamilton (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), Schmidt (Daniel Bruhl), Monk (John Ortiz), Mundy (Chris O'Dowd), Volkov (Aksel Hennie), & Tam (Zhang Ziyi) -- ultimately manages to pull off their task. Hurray!!! However. They also discover they've torn open the fabric of space & time and wound-up in an altogether different dimension {oh, no!}. So, bizarre things start happening.
Worms shoot out of one of the crew members. Said worms then disappear. A screaming woman (Elizabeth Debicki) appears inside a wall inside the space ship {one of the true moments of sheer horror in this film}. Mundy's arm vanishes; only to pop-up later in the strangest of ways. The space ship is damaged. And the crew starts facing a smattering of new 'dangers' while repairing it. Everything culminates with another attempt at firing the accelerator. But can they all survive these dangers and set a course for home? And do they know what awaits them down below?
What. A. Bust! In all seriousness, while this film isn't "horrible", I'm more crushed in how disappointing it actually is. The marketing for this film was aces {"No, it's not being released in theaters soon ... check it out on Netflix ... NOW!"}. People flocked to Netflix after the game and/or the next day. And I admit that for the 1st 20 minutes, I thought we were headed for something fun. Boy, was I wrong. In actuality, that very marketing event appears to have been a cover-up to just plop this turd on Netflix rather to have it suffer from bad word of mouth in theaters and poor box office. It IS a turd.
This 3rd film in the Cloverfield series deflects attention from an enormous monster and, instead, focuses on this odd mish-mash of tones & moods. Is this movie taking itself seriously? Sometimes it's SUPER-serious. Other times it's trying to be funny. Sometimes there is sobering drama AND humor in the same scene -- ugh. Now, this movie - based around a cautionary tale of a world gone mad - contains an infinite possibility of "alternate reality" themes at their disposal {the jumping into different dimensions}, yet the filmmakers stick to basic horror, confounding plot points, unoriginal ideas, silly characters & failed broad comedy.
And I can't believe how a cast as great as this was wasted. Gugu Mbatha-Raw is solid & sells a tear-inducing moment near the end; but it felt like it came from a different (and better) movie. David Oyelowo (so good in Selma & other works) can't make much of an impression. Chris O'Dowd's humor lands with a thud. Aksel Hennie's character is irritating. Elizabeth Debicki is fine; wish she were in a film worthy of her talents. Daniel Bruhl (currently killing it in The Alienist on TNT) is okay, but why is his German character only conversing in Chinese with the character played by Zhang Ziyi? It doesn't make sense. Very little makes sense in this film. The cast did the best they could with this messy, ineffective script. And don't get me started on the flaccid, you-gotta-be-kidding-me final shot. Too little, too late!
After many months in space, the mission team -- Kiel (David Oyelowo), Hamilton (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), Schmidt (Daniel Bruhl), Monk (John Ortiz), Mundy (Chris O'Dowd), Volkov (Aksel Hennie), & Tam (Zhang Ziyi) -- ultimately manages to pull off their task. Hurray!!! However. They also discover they've torn open the fabric of space & time and wound-up in an altogether different dimension {oh, no!}. So, bizarre things start happening.
Worms shoot out of one of the crew members. Said worms then disappear. A screaming woman (Elizabeth Debicki) appears inside a wall inside the space ship {one of the true moments of sheer horror in this film}. Mundy's arm vanishes; only to pop-up later in the strangest of ways. The space ship is damaged. And the crew starts facing a smattering of new 'dangers' while repairing it. Everything culminates with another attempt at firing the accelerator. But can they all survive these dangers and set a course for home? And do they know what awaits them down below?
What. A. Bust! In all seriousness, while this film isn't "horrible", I'm more crushed in how disappointing it actually is. The marketing for this film was aces {"No, it's not being released in theaters soon ... check it out on Netflix ... NOW!"}. People flocked to Netflix after the game and/or the next day. And I admit that for the 1st 20 minutes, I thought we were headed for something fun. Boy, was I wrong. In actuality, that very marketing event appears to have been a cover-up to just plop this turd on Netflix rather to have it suffer from bad word of mouth in theaters and poor box office. It IS a turd.
This 3rd film in the Cloverfield series deflects attention from an enormous monster and, instead, focuses on this odd mish-mash of tones & moods. Is this movie taking itself seriously? Sometimes it's SUPER-serious. Other times it's trying to be funny. Sometimes there is sobering drama AND humor in the same scene -- ugh. Now, this movie - based around a cautionary tale of a world gone mad - contains an infinite possibility of "alternate reality" themes at their disposal {the jumping into different dimensions}, yet the filmmakers stick to basic horror, confounding plot points, unoriginal ideas, silly characters & failed broad comedy.
And I can't believe how a cast as great as this was wasted. Gugu Mbatha-Raw is solid & sells a tear-inducing moment near the end; but it felt like it came from a different (and better) movie. David Oyelowo (so good in Selma & other works) can't make much of an impression. Chris O'Dowd's humor lands with a thud. Aksel Hennie's character is irritating. Elizabeth Debicki is fine; wish she were in a film worthy of her talents. Daniel Bruhl (currently killing it in The Alienist on TNT) is okay, but why is his German character only conversing in Chinese with the character played by Zhang Ziyi? It doesn't make sense. Very little makes sense in this film. The cast did the best they could with this messy, ineffective script. And don't get me started on the flaccid, you-gotta-be-kidding-me final shot. Too little, too late!