Cloverfield Paradox and the Netflix Predicament

The Cloverfield Paradox Review

Oh boy, that movie was something other than a movie. What a way to start off 2018 for movies, and not in a good way. The Cloverfield Paradox is the third installment in the “Cloververse” created by JJ Abrams.

The previous two installments are the original Cloverfield and 10 Cloverfield Lane (the best of the three). The concept is that a space crew on a space station known as the Cloverfield, are up there to use a particle accelerator to possibly create infinite energy. If they can do it in time, the world will not devolve into a resource war. But, things go awry as the particle accelerator transports them to another dimension. This action sets up the the events that take place in the other Cloverfield movies.

Usually, when I talk about movies, I start with the positives in a movie before going into the negatives. While some concepts explored in the movie were interesting, with some cool directorial choices sprinkled in, the majority of the movie is a trainwreck.

The story is executed horribly. Not only were story elements not told properly, they were without any explanation. The actual Cloverfield connections are forced into the movie and it feels unnatural. In fact, this movie was supposed to be its own film called The God Particle, but because JJ Abrams’ company “Bad Robot” had the rights to it, they decided: why not make it a Cloverfield film? As a result, all the Cloverfield references are added in post production. None of the main characters even mention the name “Cloverfield” and you can tell that this was supposed to be its own movie.

But, most of the acting is just plain bad. What’s even more infuriating is that most of the cast are all solid actors. It’s just that they don’t have anything to work with when it comes to the script. Also, another aspect that I touched on earlier on were the scary, cosmic events have little to no explanation. Much of the “horror” aspects were these random, unexplained events. For example, one of the crew member’s arms was cut off by a wall and became its own entity for some reason, or when the russian crew member died by having a bunch of worms spring out of him for no reason. It seemed like whoever wrote the screenplay for this film thought that it didn't matter how crazy or weird the events are, because they could just write it off as the problems of parallel universes and the collision of these said universes.

What also makes it worse was the viral marketing. At the Big Game, the TV spot for it not only made it seem like it was going to be integral to the original Cloverfield, they even went as far as to show footage from the original film. And when they released it to Netflix it heightened the hype, but the mismarketing made the film even worse and the whole ordeal came off like a scam.

Overall the movie is bad. A messy storyline with no explanations, confusing plot points, and hamfisted connections makes this film unwatchable. I do not recommend this movie unless you want to see how to not make a film to “connect a universe” or how to not make a good film at all.

The Netflix Predicament

Speaking of Netflix, there seems to be an ongoing pattern going on with Netflix and their bigger movies. Put simply, they're bad.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Netflix has been on a roll with their original series. Black Mirror has been a hit for them and many other shows like Stranger Things and Orange is the New Black. They also have niche shows that have great quality like Dark and Altered Carbon. But, when it comes to their movies, they have been dropping the ball.

Before The Cloverfield Paradox, Netflix had another big budget movie called Bright directed by David Ayer (Suicide Squad, Training Day) and starring Will Smith. The script for the film was actually passed down by many different studios for years and last year Netflix took the script and made it into a movie. That film turned out to be a mess, and while I don’t think it was the worse movie of 2017, it was definitely not a good one. What’s interesting is that it’s one of the most viewed movies on Netflix. Netflix interprets this as a good thing and is now in the works of making a sequel.

So now they’re making a sequel to an extremely messy blockbuster in the wake of having just released another big budget flop (Cloverfield Paradox) that had a large amount of views as well, but was loathed by both critics and audience alike. This could be a bad sign for the Netflix studios and the fact that a movie going “straight to Netflix” could become a negative stigma.

But, that doesn’t mean that streaming services can’t be on par with the caliber of Hollywood studios. Companies like Amazon show that they can make Oscar calibur films like Manchester by the Sea. And it shows Netflix they need to up their game if they want to be a competitor in the film industry.