The Cloverfield Paradox

Netflix has been on a roll with their TV shows, but their films have been lacking. After seeing the trailer for this film during the Super Bowl and reading the words “Available on Netflix now,” I was excited. I have not seen Cloverfield, and I was not a fan of 10 Cloverfield Lane’s ending— the rest was a very entertaining thriller with John Goodman— but I was looking forward to seeing how this film would connect the two stories. Does it? Nope. Does it try? Not clearly. What does it do? To be honest, I think it tried to be ambiguous and serve as a basis for the fans to create their own theories, but it failed to do that as well.

Surprisingly, this film both has too many conveniences and plot holes at the same time to be a film with forgivable flaws. The idea of this “Cloverfield Paradox” is that two realities (possibly more) are colliding, which creates ultimate chaos. This chaos gave the perfect excuse for the writers to do what ever they wanted. Some elements of this paradox were very intriguing, but by the end, when most of the subplots should have been resolved, certain things began to appear with no explanation. Objects appear in the space ship because they were physically in the same location in that dimension when the ship arrived, but by the end there are gallons of water flooding rooms and drowning one of the characters. Where did that water come from? Apparently in this new dimension there are lakes floating through space hungry for stranded astronauts.

Several space films are criticized for having the astronauts hate each other instead of being trained professionals. They are scientists, not drama queens. This is a logical argument, and a prime example is this film. Not only is the conflict between certain characters’ shallow, its potential is completely wasted because its introduction is shown through fist fights. There are mentions of Germany and Russia at the brink of war, and two astronauts, a German and a Russian, are introduced by punching each other. There is no introduction, no credibility to this hatred. Imagine starting a documentary about World War II and having the first frame talk about the winter of the Russian front. Where is the motive, why do they hate each other? Instead of growing a possibly strong subplot, the film cuts to the action, and after a few moments of that, it forgets about it like it never happened! The dialogue, the sudden shift in motive and atmosphere, and forgettable resolutions make the conflict seem pointless.

The surprise antagonist at the end has no motive. They claim that they want to save the lives on earth, which earth they are talking about I do not know since both will not progress after her actions, and that entire plot line is crammed in to add a few more minutes before the climax. They use a video of the main character’s family to persuade her to give up on the mission, but the video makes no sense since the earth that video came from has been at war for more than a year and the recording is too happy compared to the first scenes of the first earth and the information given to the audience about the second one.

From the first line of dialogue to the infuriating ending, I had little bits of hope given only to be taken away by the next scene. Most of the first act shoves news coverage and forced exposition as if the characters were talking directly to the audience like a mockumentary. There are countless moments where two people are informing one another about things they already know; the audience does not know the information, which is why the scene is happening, but it is treated as if both characters know everything yet nothing at the same time! The actors tried their best to make the lines sound believable, but it sadly is not enough. The cast is great, the words they say are not, and whatever script J.J. Abrams agreed to produce for his third Cloverfield film… I hope it was accidentally lost and they needed to write what they remembered from what they read.

Story Rating: 2/10

Character Rating: 6/10