The Cloverfield Paradox

Dir: Julius Onah

2018

***

There are various different ways of looking at The Cloverfield Paradox. Firstly, the original Cloverfield came out in 2008 and was celebrated for it’s clever marketing. It wasn’t a remarkable film – a found-footage contemporary monster movie – but it was entertaining all the same. No one expected a sequel, let alone a series and it is clear that was never the intention. However, they had a name and J.J. Abrams clearly wanted a franchise of his own (after messing with just about everyone else’s). 2016’s 10 Cloverfield Lane came from out of nowhere – again, a clever marketing ploy – and it was well received. It conjured up even more questions about the first film and explained the ‘universe’ rather cleverly. It was a totally different style of film but it worked. It was then announced that more ‘Cloverfield’ films would be released, each showing a unique viewpoint of the event that was unfolding and each answering previous questions, as well as asking its own. The best possible kind of movie expansion in my mind, many franchises have their own ‘universes’ but Cloverfield looked like it was on to something uniquely special. The Cloverfield Paradox came out of nowhere, even more so than 10 Cloverfield Lane, Bad Robot Productions waiting until Super Bowl LII to announce its release – which was to be just two hours later on streaming channel Netflix. A great surprise for everyone with a Netflix account but maybe a disappointment for everyone who had enjoyed the two previous films and were looking forward to seeing it, what ever it was going to be, on the big screen. Clever marketing. Or was it? Bad Robot bought the script for 10 Cloverfield Lane when it was just a spec script called The Cellar. It had nothing to do with Cloverfield but was re-written so that it would connect to the first film. A lucky day for the scriptwriters in many respects but also a back-handed compliment in that it was if being told that their script was good but would never go anywhere as it was. Harsh but probably accurate. I think the same could be said for The Cloverfield Paradox. I find it somewhat outrageous though that it’s writer, Oren Uziel, had no idea that his idea, originally called God Particle, had been bought, rewritten and absorbed into the Cloverfield franchise until production was well underway. You have to expect it when writing a spec script but still, it’s got to hurt a little. The truth is though, The Cloverfield Paradox would have struggled at the box office. Spaceship horrors are a tough sell, I personally love them but 2017’s Life – a brilliant recent addition to the genre, limped at the box office and Ridley Scott is pretty much killing off everyone else’s chances by butchering his own Alien franchise. People are looking to the small screen for their sci-fi pleasure, so, I’m sad to say, Netflix was a good move on all accounts. Apparently the production costs had risen anyway, the film was filmed back in 2016 and there have clearly been problems. The Super Bowl announcement might seem a clever marketing ploy but the truth is it screams of a last minute damage control. I like watching my films on the big screen but I’ll be honest, finding out about this film in the morning and being able to watch it in the comfort of my own home that very night was pretty sweet and as much as I enjoyed it, I would have felt a little cheated if I’d paid to see it in the cinema. It’s better than Alien: Covenant but I preferred Life. Cloverfield isn’t a franchise I’m that interested in really if I’m being honest, I’m curious but fairly ambivalent towards it. I do admire what they’re doing in some respects, as cheap as it is, it is full of interesting possibilities. First saw a monster in New York, second was a creepy underground bunker scenario and third is in space. The Cloverfield Paradox finally gives us some answers as to what has been going on, these are not particularly original answers, but they’re answers all the same. The crew of the science space ship/space station ‘Shepard’ are circling the Earth and using a particle accelerator in order to solve the planet’s energy crisis. After two years of failure, they finally get the accelerator working properly but things go very wrong after the initial start. After thinking that they may have mistakenly destroyed the earth, they soon realise that they’ve accidentally jumped to an alternative dimension. We are told early on in the film in a news clip featuring Gotham regular Donal Logue as a science commentator, that this kind of untested particle acceleration could lead to nightmarish scenarios but the clip is switched off by a member of the crew – much to their downfall. You can’t help but think of films such as 2017’s Life, Event Horizon and The Mist. There is also a little bit of David Cronenberg in there, as well as a few scenes H.R. Giger could have designed. I also saw a lot of H.P. Lovecraft in some of the more surreal happenings, as well as Sam Raimi and The Addams Family. The story barely works as part of the Cloverfield story, it certainly wouldn’t have stood alone, but it does have its positives. Firstly, it’s got a fantastic cast, including Gugu Mbatha-Raw, David Oyelowo, Zhang Ziyi, Daniel Bruhl, Aksel Hennie, John Ortiz and Chris O’Dowd (plus voice cameos from Simon Pegg and Greg Grunberg – presumably to give the film a few extra nerd credentials). Each actor does a fine job and the story is consistently exciting, the only big downfall are the pointless scenes set on earth. It’s nothing special within the genre but it’s very easy to watch. Chris O’Dowd actually keeps the film going with a welcome injection of humour and some of the strange scenarios that the alternative reality throws up are great. I don’t think it makes the most of the possibilities the scenario could lead to, but for a TV movie its popcorn-tastic. I’m not really interested in a Cloverfield television series, so I’m quite glad they’re moving in this direction. I’m not disappointed because I had absolutely no expectations, to be honest, the more ridiculous the story gets the happier I’ll probably be. Think Twilight Zone rather than Black Mirror and you shouldn't be too disappointed.