Making movies is hard. Making good movies is really hard. And making a good movie out of an untouched script is next to impossible. Sometimes a perfectly good spec will sit in an inbox for months or even years before it’s looked at. And when they’re finally given some attention they can go through massive changes in order to get greenlit. It’s a very common practice in the movie industry and if you’re in orbit of the Cloverfield franchise it’s now par for the course. Back in 2016 the brilliant 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE made its debut and was widely praised for its sharp scene direction and intriguing mystery. In the instance of that film, it was originally called The Cellar and wasn’t connected to the Cloverfield franchise at all. Once the script was obtained by Bad Robot a rewrite was done to fit it into the universe.
Fast forward to 2018 and THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX is upon on, and guess what? Its script didn’t start out as a Cloverfield movie either. Hell, it wasn’t even a Cloverfield movie when it began filming. What was once called God Particle fell into the hands of J.J. Abram and Bad Robot where they made “adjustments” to the script while shooting to fit it into the Cloverfield universe. But how did THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX turn out? Well, fine, I guess. It’s weird, the film does somethings right but also comes off sort of lazy, which is frustrating. It’s a fun movie but there are portions of the film that straight up make no sense at all.
The problem with THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX is that a lot of the mysteries it throws at the viewer are about its own logic, not about the universe of Cloverfield
If the premise is familiar that’s because the premise is familiar. Earth is running dangerously low on energy resources and several countries are threatening war because this is how humans act as a default. After a brief introduction to life on earth, Ava, our protagonist finds herself on a space station named the Cloverfield Station where a crew of scientists are testing The Shepard (I was hoping this was a Mass Effect reference but who knows), a particle accelerator that will provide infinite energy to earth. The problem is, using the Shepard comes with some dangers. While some conspiracy theorists call it the Cloverfield Paradox everyone else seems to ignore that entirely. Well as these things tend to do, all hell breaks loose and the crew finds themselves in an alternate reality that mirrors their own with some very significant differences, like where the fuck is earth? No, seriously, the earth is missing. And trust me when I say that’s not the weirdest thing that happens to them.
I really don’t think it behooves anyone for me to go over the entire plot of THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX but understand that there’s science involved and while it’s fun, it’s not particularly good science. Leaving the bad science behind, we have a sci-fi horror movie that’s heavy on science and uses more conventional horror tropes than previous movies in the franchise. So if that’s what you’re here for, stop reading this review and have at it. But if you’re still curious about where the film goes, keep reading. THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX is both too by-the-book and all over the place
I know I keep harping on the bad science in this movie but it’s because so much of the premise hinges on some really bad logic points. That’s not to say I didn’t have a good time. I found it mostly ignorable for the sake of the ride. I wouldn’t say I’m giving the film a pass but when you have the word paradox in your title, I know I’m in for some nonsense. Still, there are plot holes. Big ones if you care about stuff making sense, but for the most part it can be dismissed because science is happening.
Confusing bits notwithstanding, there’s a fair bit of horror in THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX, but it comes off uneven. As is typical (especially with sci-fi horror) people make really bad decisions. Granted, it’s not ‘take your helmet off on an alien planet where organic pods are growing’ bad but people die and sometimes they deserved every bit of their demise. I cheered when it happened. What’s actually taking out the crew is made to seem like a natural phenomenon because of their dimensional jump but some of the things that happen are huge leaps of logic and I’d have loved for at least one scientist to wonder out loud why those worms were there. Or how’s that arm doing that? If weird shit is going down I want at least one person saying “what the hell is going on, why’d that happen?” Alas, we never get there.
Conceptually, THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX is intriguing. As a sci-fi fan, I could appreciate the core concept at face value. There’s a dimensional tear and our crew is marooned in an alternate dimension in which they need to escape from. Got it. I also like the type of sci-fi on display. We get treated to some high concept Mass Effect aesthetics mixed in with utilitarian Ridley Scott-ish sensibilities. Unfortunately, THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX has to speak eventually, and it’s sort of a mess from that point on.
Whereas 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE gave us a drip feed of mystery throughout the film, THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX comes at us in waves and unfortunately no one knows how to swim. There are some interesting scenes, not particularly scary but interesting scenes that are worth watching. One moment, in particular, having to do with station repairs in space was fun. I’m intentionally avoiding going into details about what’s happening on earth because we do get to see what happens there, but it’s an utter mess, and since we spend so little time there it’s really hard to care. Special shoutout to Roger Davies though, he plays Michael, Ava’s husband on earth. He does a good job with such limited screen time to make us care about him at least. That’s not to say the rest of the cast is bad. There are a number of high-quality actors, all doing their best to make sense of this mess. Chris O’Dowd also stands out from the rest of the crew.
The film does somethings right but also comes off sort of lazy.
Looking back at my time with THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX it’s frustrating how shoehorned in the Cloverfield stuff is. There really isn’t a strong connection, aside from a few one-off scenes that you can tell were thrown in to appease fans of the series like me. This is obviously a result of the patchwork script that was put together. Don’t get me wrong, 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE had this quality also, but the underlying film was so strong it didn’t matter.
I did find the ending to be the film’s strongest point. It doesn’t set the stage for part 4 per say, but it opens up a lot of questions about the lore and those are the types of questions I welcome. The problem with THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX is that a lot of the mysteries it throws at the viewer are about its own logic, not about the universe of Cloverfield and to me that’s a wasted opportunity. After the excellent genre-bending 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE, THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX is both too by-the-book and all over the place, and it’s hard to recommend it for anyone but hardcore sci-fi fans or Cloverfield nerds.
The Cloverfield Paradox is out now on Netflix
The Cloverfield Paradox [REVIEW]
An Intriguing Mess
A missed opportunity.
February 9, 2018
Jason, “If weird shit is going down I want at least one person saying “what the hell is going on, why’d that happen?” Alas, we never get there. ”
Am I wrong in saying that they new exactly what was going on by this point? They knew the worlds/dimesions collided, they knew that the explainable was/would be happening. We were warned by the author at the start as to what would happen. As for the science… we have no idea how the science would work in an alternate dimension. We were set in a world in which we do not know the rules, can’t expect everything to work the same on Earth 2 as it does on Earth 1.
February 9, 2018
I see what you’re saying, but that’s teetering dangerously close to the Phantasm “it was all a dream so nothing has to make sense” logic. And I’m not sure I can ever get on board with that.
February 9, 2018
The mere fact that the second universe has “other” versions of our characters explicitly implies that the rules are at least very similar. Sentient parts of a space station don’t fit into what we already know about Earth and what is implied about Earth 2. They basically say this is just like the world you know, just on a completely separate timeline.
They had an opportunity to have a world where anything was possible, and they even started down that path, but then they backtracked into a corner that didn’t make any sense.
February 9, 2018
You mean anything like giant monsters? Anything like arms being able to write and crawl around on their own?
Oh and do you guys agree that earth 2 is the earth in Cloverfield?
February 9, 2018
I’m not sure about the Earth 2 scenario, but I did have thoughts about that bunker being the same from 2.
February 10, 2018
See, I too thought the bunker looked pretty damn similar. I think Earth 1 is where the original Cloverfield is kicking off (hence we see the giant monster at the end). There is no indication that anything other than an impending energy crisis is happening on Earth 2.
February 11, 2018
It’s possible. But that Cloverfield monster at the end of Paradox is waaaaaaay bigger than the one from the original movie. But we do know that the monster doesn’t die at the end of Cloverfield because we hear them say “it’s still alive” off camera after they nuke Central Park so perhaps it is the same monster and the radiation made it bigger. I have no idea, and I have a sinking suspicion that neither does J.J.
February 9, 2018
So one of running theories right now is that all three movies exist is different realities. There’s also a rumor that Donal Logue’s character is brothers with John Goodman’s character from 10 Cloverfield Lane.
Who the hell knows now. Anything’s possible. The paradox did its job.
February 9, 2018
Yeah, you aren’t wrong, and having the word paradox allows for a certain amount of unpredictablity. My issue was how far they took it. Why was that arm able to move and even write? Why did those worms speak to that dude and make him do what he did? Why did they assume that using the Shepard again would bring them back and not into yet another dimension? What was Ava going to do with Earth 2 Ava, it’s brought up but her plan isn’t very clear.
So I hear you, but I feel like it relied too heavily on it being a paradox and as a result came off a bit lazy.
February 13, 2018
Yeah, I get it, Jason. They all struck me as being way too chill in the face of fucked up, weird shit that kept happening. Assuming that just using the shepard again would bring them back is the sci-fi equivalent of Ferris Bueller driving home backwards. That being said, I had fun and I don’t think making sense is a prerequisite to enjoying a movie.