J.J Abrams Needs to Relax
Before I start, I must first make note of the marketing for this movie, because it was incredible. Last night, during the Superbowl, the first ever trailer was released for this movie. It was a 30 second teaser trailer that announced the movie and then, at the end of the trailer it was announced that the movie would be available after the game. That's right, they announced a movie LITERAL. HOURS. Before its release. Which, honestly, was insane.
Now, onto the film.
The Cloverfield Paradox is the third movie in the "Cloverfield" franchise. For those unaware, Cloverfield is an anthology series of sorts from J.J Abrams and Bad Robot. Each movie takes place in a separate Timeline but all have loose connections via the fictional company known as Tagrauto.
Cloverfield Paradox is set in 2028 aboard a space station orbiting Earth. Earth is in chaos. Humanity is on the brink of running out of fuel and energy and with it, World War 3 is steadily looming closer as countries desperately want to do whatever they can for more energy and fuel. To stop this, a space station was created to try and create a Particle Accelerator to create a stable and infinite source of power for the planet.
However, upon attempting to activate the machine something goes wrong and the crew of scientists are baffled to find that planet Earth is gone. The crew must now figure out what has happened, where they are and how to fix it and get home.
This movie is, in a sense, a Science Fiction movie with some horror/thriller elements mixed into it. Honestly, I quite enjoyed the film. The acting was good, the script was pretty decent, a few odd lines of dialogue here and there but nothing too distracting. The film pays plenty of reference to the other Cloverfield movies helps build the connecting lore of the series in big ways.
Now, this is important for anyone considering viewing this film. This may not be the movie for you. If you are, like me, a big fan of Cloverfield as a series and are up to date on the whole ARG (Alternate Reality Game) and all of the outside lore surrounding the universe, I one hundred percent recommend you see this movie.
If you have never seen any of the Cloverfield movies or don't know much about them I would still recommend the movie as a Sci-Fi fan, but you may not enjoy it as much as some die hard fans. Or, you might enjoy it more, who knows. References will go over your head and you may finish the movie feeling incredibly confused.
This movie is not perfect, it's not even what I would consider incredible or great, however, it is a good film. As a Cloverfield fan I really did enjoy it but it does leave a sense of wanting more. There is a side plot in the movie with the main characters Husband that some may not like, or some, like me, wished we got to see far FAR more of. Though that's down to personal taste.
For me, The Cloverfield Paradox gets a 6/10.
As I said, it's not a great movie, but it's definitely something I would watch two or three more times and could see myself perhaps enjoying more on a separate viewing.
I'll be doing a follow up post regarding the end of the movie and my thoughts on the Cloververse as a whole so expect that with in the hour.