I genuinely can’t believe I watched this movie. Netflix, the distributor of the movie did what a few years ago would be unthinkable, announced and dropped this film in the same night. The Cloverfield Paradox stars a cast of 8 different nationalities living in the Cloverfield space station in the year 2028. The movie wastes no time establishing the idea of the Cloverfield Paradox, the idea that the higgs-boson like reactor the crew is working on can create enough energy to possibly rip the fabric of space and time. And would you guess it, that exact thing happens!
I really loved the Cloverfield movies, specially the surprise hit “10 Cloverfield Lane.” I think they are really unique and interesting movies that have just enough connections to each other that keeps you interested and guessing to where the franchise is going. Unfortunately, they decided in the prequel route for the third instalment, which does little to answer the questions brought about by the other two movies; instead it plants the seeds for far more questions than answers. Like I said, this movie mainly deals with the ideas of limitless power and alternative dimensions. I think this is the strongest part of the film, by far. It’s a unique idea for a sci-fi movie, however they really do a horrible job establishing the rules of the interdimensional traveling. It makes some of the film feel very random, with events just seemingly happening because the plot calls for something interesting to happen. The single worst part of this film however is the third act. The movie becomes unbelievably generic, with a surprise villain reveal that doesn’t feel like a shock at all. All the good faith this movie built up with the unique premise and ideas are thrown out the window by the third act, which is really sad to see. This movie had an opportunity to be great. However, it just fails on very fundamental story levels, which slowly sinks the film.
Not everything in this movie is horrible though, the acting in particular is actually quite good. Gugu Mbatha-Raw plays the lead Hamilton, and does a really great job with what she’s given. Since she’s the main character she gets the most character development and the strongest arc, but luckily she has the chops to be able to lead this film. The two standouts for me in the supporting cast had to be Chris O'Dowd as Mundy and David Oyelowo as Keil. O'Dowd provided the majority of the comic relief, and does an excellent job in most of the scenes he’s able too. A particularly funny scene involving his arm was a real standout. Oyelowo on the other hand, plays the captain of the ship who has to keep the order, with a stoic personality that is given a surprising amount of emotion thanks to Oyelowo's performance. The acting is definitely my favorite aspect of this film, and is the only thing holding this film up for me.
Overall, I was disappointed with this film. However, thanks to Netflix’s genius idea of announcing and releasing the movie on the same day, during the Super Bowl no less, was about as genius of a marketing strategy I’ve seen in a while. If released to theaters, I’m not sure how well this film would’ve done, however because it’s just available to anyone with a Netflix account (and I mean who doesn’t have Netflix by now) this film will be viewed as a success. I wish this movie had answered more questions than it brings up, however I was happy with some story elements and the acting. This is not a great movie. But, if you’re a fan of sci-fi films with a decent story and interesting ideas or the Cloverfield films, I’d say check this movie out. If not, this one might not be for you. Still, it wouldn’t cost you anything to watch.