The Cloverfield Paradox
Please note possible spoilers.
Since Cloverfield, the subsequent Cloverfield movies have worked to establish the story as much more than just a Gozilla-esque monster bash. 10 CLoverfield Lane was within a constrained setting and played out as a psychological dramatic thriller.
I love John Goodman as an actor and it was both thrilling and disturbing to see him play such a sinister character so well. The Cloverfield Paradox charges into a space-horror and science-fiction setting, intended to serve as a prequel to the Cloverfield storyline.
Complete with body horror and inter-dimensional dispalcia, as a cyberpunk through and through, my curiosity was peaked. Fans of horror will at least enjoy some of the gorier moments and deaths in this movie.
But that's all it really delivers. It doesn't even feel part of the Cloverfield storyline until a unsatisfying reveal at the end. The Cloverfield Paradox follows a group in space, who, after attempting to successfully use a particle accelerator to create perpetual energy for a dying earth, is blasted into some kind of rip in dimensional space, causing two dimensions to collide/overlap and become unstable. This lays the basis for essentially the excuse of monsters entering the world in the Cloverfield universe.
The crew isn't exactly gripping or original, and a sub plot plays out with one of the groups partners on Earth.
The sub-plot is supposed to add an emotional element to the film but falls flat completely.
This movie could have just been a stand alone B-grade space horror without any connection to Cloverfield. In fact, there shouldn't have been any connection to Cloverfield. I feel the connection was just to peak interest and viewings. I suppose Netflix will become a dumping round for B-Grade issue films like this. Personally I'd have just preferred an actual
monster horror like the original rather than this effort to move away from the Monster bash genre, or simply over-complicate it.
Thoroughly disappointed.
5/10
All screenshots taken by me.