There were whispers and rumors, fueled by redditors and industry gossip … would Netflix actually do it? Would they use their streaming platform to show off yet another capability that traditional theatres could mimic: releasing a “big name” movie with (relatively) no marketing and catching the entire world off guard.
But they actually did it.
The Cloverfield Paradox trailer dropped during last night’s Super Bowl, prompting frenzied messages in the Friends of Super Kaiju group text (archived below for posterity), which were only elevated by the chance that we might actually get to watch this movie tonight.
Cloverfield was viral marketing before “viral marketing” even had a name. One of the pioneers of ARG, alongside The Dark Knight and Lost, I spent 2007 scrounging through forums for Slusho clues and weird connections, creating organic hype for a movie that I didn’t even know the basic plot for. Much like its predecessor, Paradox thrives through its marketing, two intense trailers, punched by unique marketing … but, also like its predecessor, it stumbles across the finish line.
The original Cloverfield, with its much-maligned “shaky-cam” was not a bad movie by any means but, by the end, you felt like the marketing was more beholden to a bigger, better movie. That small feeling of disappointment was a nagging feeling … was all this work worth it?
While the initial “Cloververse” follow-up 10 Cloverfield Lane was a taut, well-built thriller that excelled because of the limited space it worked within, The Cloverfield Paradox takes the franchise to the stars, expanding the world, while at the same time losing a little of what made the first two so interesting. World-building is always welcome, but in an already-established world where we’ve seen going-away parties (and definitely electricity), it seems like we’re only just receiving clues to alternate worlds, ten years in the making.
Maybe the movie isn’t best-watched groggily after already watching the Super Bowl for five hours, but something still felt … off. The first two acts were good, if not generic, sci-fi set-up, with an incredible, international ensemble cast. But in a world where we’ve already recently seen Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, this set-up seems almost trite: create quick emotional ties between the characters so that, when shit hits the fan, the audience can care about them.
The basic plot: astronauts on an International Space Station look out the window to discover … the Earth is gone. Initially called God Particle, before being rebranded and thrown into the Cloverfield universe, this movie never really elevates beyond that premise, throwing a few tense moments and some well-crafted emotional appeal into a disappointingly generic science fiction b-movie.
The acting was solid but television-like, making this feel like a very well-produced episode of Black Mirror (which is not necessarily a bad thing). Gugu Mbatha-Raw (coincidentally a Black Mirror alum) and Daniel Brühl both deliver strong, but restrained, performances, adding a significant amount of pathos to their interdimensional plight. Humor is interjected haphazardly, never giving a moment to really establish a true sense of tone.
And when the third act slows down significantly, taking the movie from the Alien franchise to a low-budget television finale, the movie crumbles. Without the presence of a monster or other-worldly force to fight, the entire effort screeches to a halt. It is additionally slowed down by a relatively thrown-together Earth-based sub-plot, following the husband of our heroine as he walks through the paces of the first two movies in the franchise. (I would have added an extra star to this review if John Goodman had made a surprise appearance during these scenes.)
But the last shot redeems a lot of these flaws: Clover, all grown up, head in the clouds … a Pacific Rim roar closing out the movie, reminding me of the end credits of the first installment. I was back in.
So, with this all being said, give me more Cloverfield movies. One a year. Two a year. I don’t care. Take scripts off The Blacklist, add a few extra scenes and give me a Twilight Zone movie series. (The already-announced fourth installment, currently dubbed Overlord, is apparently a period war piece, set during the storm of the Normandy beaches. I can’t wait.)
While the movie definitely isn’t a success, it is also not a complete failure. If anything, this movie already has its place in history, creating a new world of publicity and movie releases, like its predecessors before.
