By Adam Miklas
Staff Writer
The Cloverfield movies have always been interesting when it comes to what type of movies they are and the time they are released.
The first “Cloverfield” film consisted of found monster footage. The second one, “10 Cloverfield Lane” is a mystery thriller and was announced two months before release in theaters.
The most recent movie, “The Cloverfield Paradox,” was announced during Super Bowl 52 and was released on Netflix right after the game finished.
Audiences were shocked by the sudden release, with fans of the series taking to social media to express their excitement.
So, how is the movie given this short time frame of information and release?
The movie starts out with Earth going through a terrible energy crisis.
It is up to a crew of people, whose qualifications are never specified, to test out a new way of permanent renewable energy to help make up for the lack of it on Earth.
Things start to go wrong when the ship the crew is on warps to an alternate dimension, and tons of unnatural phenomenon start to occur.
The acting is strong all around, with even the occasionally funny line that really worked here or there.
Overall though, the only interesting character is the protagonist Ava Hamilton (Gugu Mbatha-Raw).
She has a reason for doing what she is doing and has a sad and incredibly relatable backstory.
Other than these factors, the film is a complete mess.
The cast has some diversity for sure. Daniel Brühl plays as Schmidt, David Oyelowo as commander Kiel, Elizabeth Debicki as Jensen, Chris O’Dowd as Mundy, Aksel Hennie as Volkov, Zhang Ziyi as Tam and John Ortiz as Acosta.
In the end, it does not really matter who they all are when there is no reason to care for them.
The lack of making the characters somewhat interesting makes it hard to sympathise or worry for them.
So when spooky stuff starts to occur, it is really not sad when something happens to the crew members.
The elements of horror in this film fall flat (this is coming from a guy who usually cannot handle horror).
Each scare can be seen coming a mile away and there is no real reason for these elements to exist.
The explanation for everything is vague and none of it makes sense and is likely there just for shock value, intentional or not.
The movie is also predictable.
From the plot to the scares and even the dialogue, you will probably know everything that is going to happen way before it even happens.
There is nothing genuinely unique in this movie that sets it apart from other movies of its ilk, such as Alien, Gravity, and Event Horizon, which are clearly an inspiration of the film.
Without spoiling, the actual connection to “Cloverfield” is forced and out of place.
It is a question why this did not remain a different film like it was supposed to be originally, before becoming another film in the franchise.
“10 Cloverfield Lane” was originally a standalone story that was reworked into the Cloverfield universe. While that film worked, “Cloverfield Paradox” fell short.
Overall, the film is boring, predictable, generic, and just an all-around bad movie, Cloverfield related or not.
Email Adam at:
amiklas@live.esu.edu
