There are currently three films set in JJ Abram’s Cloverfield franchise. First came Cloverfield, then 10 Cloverfield Lane, followed by the recently released Cloverfield Paradox. These films are just that, a franchise; and are linked together by reckless monsters (apparently from another dimension) and a desire to make enormous amounts of money.
Image sourced from Netflix. It's fair use, its a piece of writing about it.
Exit interviews after this was shown in theatres looked a little like this.
The characters are not that interesting, and the production values, beyond the “found footage” format; paint a chaotic tale of survival and people being scared shitless. There’s not much actual substance here.
On the other hand, 10 Cloverfield Lane, is brilliant, tense storytelling, sans the last 15 minutes or so. We follow a woman involved in a car accident, taken in by a doomsday prepper, and told that the outside world is no longer safe.
It is a fascinating insight into human trust, and the notion of “he who tells you the news, manufactures the news” – there’s doubt in your mind about what is true and what is not all the way through the film. It is an incredible piece of storytelling, in its own right.
Still, captured from 10 Cloverfield Lane.
Then, we have the latest in the series, The Cloverfield Paradox. This film follows several astronauts that are testing a particle accelerator, in space. Things go badly, and they end up “losing” the Earth, in spite of the technological marvels that surround them.
There’s no immediate reaction to try and locate their whereabouts via the stars until what feels like thirty minutes of ineptitude. The film isn’t great, the idea behind it is. The monsters that are thrown in to make sure that it fits in with the Cloverfield franchise are unnecessary, and I strongly believe the film would have performed much worse, perhaps not even viewed, if it were not for the commercial relationship and name given.
What we have with the Cloverfield franchise is a producer attempting to take ideas that are not entirely their own, and link them in to one another in a primitive manner. Trying to piece together the timeframe, locations, and links between each part leave me personally dizzy, like the ideas that they each try to combine and explore.
Another capture from the film.
Dizzy, not because there’s deep, scientific explanations and information thrown at me to convince me that the science fiction magic is real. Dizzy not because there’s chaotic interactions between alternate dimensions; but dizzy because somehow; the franchise isn’t being taken out to the range and shot.
If you were thinking of diving into the Cloverfield franchise, do yourself a favour – Watch 10 Cloverfield Lane. Stop there.
Worse still, there’s another film that’s coming in the series, called “Overlord”, the plot premise, lifted from Wikipedia states:
In 1944, two American paratroopers are shot down over Normandy in the midst of the D-Day invasion and they discover that the Nazis are using supernatural forces against them.
This is such an original plot line. Oh wait, no; it isn’t. There’s an entire part, of the video game, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune where you literally fight Nazi Zombies and question if they were used during war time.
What’s next, a Romantic Comedy set within the Cloverfield Universe, where there’s an alien spy acting as a honeypot / double agent for the alien behemoths that thrash and writhe about the cities of men? If that happens, I’ll be demanding licencing fees.
I don’t know what JJ Abrams is trying to attempt professionally and artistically (lacking their word), but I know this; it is possible to set stories in the same ‘’universe’ but teach us different lessons, or explore different genres; but this is not the way to do it. By the logic of JJ Abrams, Interstellar could just as easily be a part of the Cloverfield Franchise, if only it had massive alien monsters.