Ten years ago, we had the JJ Abrams-produced flick
Cloverfield, that gave us the harrowing story of a group of yuppies very, very
attached to their camcorder, surviving in New York in the wake of an attack by
a pissed-off giant critter. Not everyone took to the…bouncy camerawork, but for
me, it was an alright creature feature with a different take on the kaiju genre
that did have a handful of memorable and nicely visceral scenes.
People thought it would end there, aside from some spinoff
material and rumors of a sequel that went nowhere. In 2016, however, we had 10
Cloverfield Lane, which, despite the name, had pretty much nothing to do with
the last one and indeed went in a very different direction. Despite it’s low
budget, however, I thought it was a surprisingly atmospheric and well-acted
piece that also gave us some pretty memorable moments, like John Goodman’s
considerable derriere shaking in front of the camera.
After this it was clear that Abrams was going for some sort
of anthology format with the Cloverfield name—even if it felt like he was
taking pre-existing scripts and slapping the name of it for marquee value. Still,
so far it seemed to have worked out—and that brings us to the latest
instalment, one that promises to tie it all together, The Cloverfield Paradox,
released on Netflix.
Ignoring the worrying sign that Paramount seemed quite happy
to sell the film to Netflix instead of risking a bomb at the box office (it
isn’t really them trying to embrace a future of streaming), it did seem
interesting at first glance. The trailer suggested some Outer Limits story of
dimensional travel gone wrong and reality breaking down in the void of space, with
monsters and aliens mixed in around it—and does the film live up to this?
Er….not really, to be honest. It does indeed have those features, but puts them
together about as well as Clover himself conducts urban renewal programs.
The film’s protagonist is Ava, played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, working
on the Cloverfield Space Station, dedicated to solving the world’s energy
problem. And as the opening scene really, really, really hammers it in, it is
indeed a very bad problem, and also Russia is up to no good because of course. Roger
Davies is there as her husband Michael, who honestly feels more interesting and
indeed gets his own B-plot that felt closer to the survival themes of the prior
instalments.
Aboard the station, we get introduced to the rest of Ava’s
crewmates, who range from Commander Cliché (imagine Lawrence Fishburne if he
took too many drowsiness pills that day) to Lieutenant Russian Stereotype. At
least there’s Chris O’Dowd from the IT crowd as an Irish engineer, although he
doesn’t attempt to reset the station’s particle accelerator by turning it off
and on again, which is disappointing. Instead, you’re left to question some of
the engineering choices, like the stations’ navigation apparently being
controlled by an inexplicable cybernetic disco ball that they need to figure
out where they are, as opposed to just looking out of the window and working
out constellations (and there comes a moment where you really have to ask if they even bothered looking out of the window).
The effects themselves are nicely done for the most part,
giving us a nice look at the station (though you wonder how they’re able to
build such a massive structure if they have such an energy crisis), and the
sets look decent, even if they are mostly the Nostromo but with more shiny.
This all lends itself to when things go off the rails as you would expect and
the crew finds itself dealing with a sudden rise of what can be best be
described as weird shit. Initially there’s actually a few creepy moments and
intrigue built up as to what’s happening, with it being implied that there’s
some nasty malevolent force behind it all. Bodies get stuck in walls, machinery
goes rogue, and things aren’t what they seem—and the station sees a newcomer or
too join the party.
However, it doesn’t pay off that great. You begin to realize
who’s going to die pretty soon, and it really starts to feel like several
scripts joined together like some Frankenstein made out of coffee-stained
paper. Just as it gets creepy, all of a sudden we’re faced with something
straight out of Evil Dead 2, which as with all the other weirdness, isn’t
really explained, and it doesn’t even make itself the Chekov’s Gun you think it
is. Hell, for the last scene, it all just stops to focus on some attempts at
human drama—like the Mysterious Interdimensional Force just decided to go for a
smoke break.
There are some decent moments—like I said, Roger Davies’
subplot feels decently tense and coherent, and I did manage to get into his
character as he travels through a mysterious apocalypse while trying to protect
those who he can. That’s the sort of thing I wanted from something that has the
Cloverfield name on it. Likewise, as stock as the characters are, they’re at
least written consistently, and you’re probable to actually care for one or two
of them.
It is kind of offset by the last part where things get
really predictable and the lack of payoff feels annoying, but at the very
least, it does leave you with one final shot that’ll either have you grinning
or going ‘what the hell?’ or both. Ultimately, as far as opportunities for
time-wasting on Netflix go, Cloverfield Paradox isn’t the best, though you
might enjoy it if you want your favorite space station-set flicks all mashed
together. There’s some decent moments here and there, but it didn’t leave me
feeling very satisfied, unfortunately.
There’s yet another movie now slapped onto the Cloverfield
anthology coming out soon called ‘Overlord’, involving the occult in World War
2, apparently. Maybe it’ll pick things up or maybe it’ll signify that this is
basically Abrams dumping random ideas he couldn’t get studio backing for onto
Netflix. Either way, stick to the first two, call them Shakeycam in New York or Me
and Psycho Twerking John Goodman if you want to judge them by their own,
and go from there.
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