A couple of days ago, anybody watching this year's Superbowl were in for a treat given their mandatory annual line-up of highly anticipated movie trailers. However, the biggest surprise came from terrestrial television streaming behemoth, Netflix. During an event break, there was an announcement that straight after the Superbowl, they would be premiering the third instalment of the Cloverfield franchise. Some marketing move, right? And oddly coincidental given my recent enthusiastic thoughts regarding the original Cloverfield and 10 Cloverfield Lane not too long ago. Did this cunningly ingenious marketing ploy, costing Netflix a whopping $50 million, live up to the lofty heights of it's two wildly successful predecessors?
It is 2028 and the Earth is fast running out of resources to sustain it's billions of inhabitants. In a global initiative sanctioned by space agencies around the world, a particle accelerator is built, named "Shepard", which is to be shuttled off into orbit aboard the space station "Cloverfield". It's main purpose being to allow the planet an almost infinite supply of necessary energy through it's use. However, many back on Earth argue against this course of action, warning of the possibilities of opening up portals to other dimensions and thus forming a gateway for "other worldly creatures" to come through. Of the seven-strong crew aboard "Cloverfield", one of them is Ava Hamilton (played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw). She reluctantly left her home planet behind as well as her husband Michael (played by Roger Davies), both of whom are still in mourning over a house fire that killed their children. After several failed attempts, "Shepard" eventually fires at full capacity, but with it comes unexpected devastating after-effects that bring about the merging of several realities all at once. Throwing our crew members into turmoil and thus leading to a race against time to get back to the world they originally came from.
Given the "bolt out of the blue" nature of this movie, there was barely enough time to prepare for what was to come. Within the first few minutes, I was amazed by the grandiose settings they went for in outer space. The interior designs of the ship were all pleasingly re-created and certainly did look the part, showcasing the substantial budget being used. It must be said that there was a minor sub-plot back on Earth running in conjunction with the main story. Scenes of a ravaged city landscape and chaotic atmosphere were all pulled off pretty well, with subtle usage of effects work to show that things are not what they appear to be on planet Earth. And that nicely leads me into a few significant issues with the movie. Yes, there are elements that relate back to the previous two entries in the series, but their correlation is vague and inconsequential at best. In other words, there is a lot of "filling in of the gaps" at play here. And the guesswork involved comes solely from our own imaginations. In some ways, it tries to be too clever for it's own good when all audiences really want is an out-and-out direct sequel to the original masterpiece, as promised many times before in the past. Becoming too bogged down with convoluted lore and too little information to guide us, hampers any meaningful impact The Cloverfield Paradox could have had. Sadly, the problems don't end there.
Apart from a decent enough performance from Mbatha-Raw as Ava, the rest of the cast turn in very lacklustre roles. In particular, veteran actor Chris O'Dowd who plays Mundy as one of the ship's crew members. His acting is so bad at times, I honestly had to shield my eyes away from the true horror I was witnessing. Terrible to the "nth" degree, where his reactions to certain situations were nothing short of plain ludacris. Whether this was down to the script writers or his own personal take on the character, I just don't know. But a car crash it most certainly was. Which is an unfortunate missed opportunity because I still believe everything got off to a solid start early on. The premise of a multiverse with different tears in the fabric of overlapping realities, is an interesting one, to put it mildly. But here, it just doesn't seem to work as it should. The pacing of the movie tries to dictate a sort of urgency throughout, but with a mediocre story-line in place, the end result is a bit of a tiresome snooze fest. And to add insult to injury, the final shot of the movie is where things actually start to get much more interesting. A frustrating, uncalled-for tease that makes the whole sordid experience venture into the territory of red-faced annoyance.
This is a masterclass in how "not" to publicize a movie. Apparently, Paramount were quite eager to sell their film onto Netflix for that $50 million price tag and it's no wonder why at all. After a relatively strong opening, dealing with some intriguing themes ripe for further exploration, the final product is a dud. Not enough exposition in dealing with the pertinent factors tying all the events of the past together and instead inflicting us all with a few crude allusions to what we already know. I can only hope the fourth movie, which is about to enter production soon by the sounds of it, rectifies the damning errors of The Cloverfield Paradox. What a calamitous travesty in every respect...
My Verdict: (4/10)
My Verdict: (4/10)
