Third 'Cloverfield' installment removes all the mystery that made the series intriguing
In the second quarter of Super Bowl LII, Netflix made history.
Although rumored earlier in the day, the streamer aired a trailer announcing it would premiere “The Cloverfield Paradox,” the long-awaited third installment in the “Cloverfield” franchise, minutes after the big game. That’s right, without any marketing, TV spots or anything, Netflix was releasing a big-budget sequel to a successful franchise — a move taken straight out of Beyonce’s playbook.
It was unprecedented. Not only was the release a surprise for fans of the mysterious franchise (which also includes “Cloverfield” and “10 Cloverfield Lane”), it added another wrinkle in the continued evolution of the movie release model and, surprisingly, the post-Super Bowl viewing experience. Traditionally, the big event after the game is whatever TV show the hosting network chooses to promote to viewers that linger after the confetti falls and someone kisses a trophy. (This year, NBC gave the honor to “This Is Us.”)
This is all to say, for pop-culture fans, Netflix gave them a jolt of excitement that rivaled even that of football fans on Sunday. Frankly, it was a baller move.
Unfortunately, the movie that eventually dropped on Netflix is not only a really bad movie, it’s an often incomprehensible movie that manages to undo much of the creative goodwill built up by one of the most promising franchises of the last decade.
“The Cloverfield Paradox” follows a team of scientists aboard a space station that carries a device that could provide endless energy for an Earth on the brink of a war for the last remaining energy resources. What follows is a convoluted mess of a space story involving alternate dimensions, a bizarre earthbound rescue mission and an unexplained vat of worms.
It could have been a fun popcorn movie that leans heavily on its very pretty production design and the sheer talent of its stacked cast, including Gugu Mbatha-Raw (brilliant in the “San Junipero” episode of Netflix’s own “Black Mirror”), Daniel Brühl and David Oyelowo.
But ultimately, it’s a major misstep set up to fail by the single 30-second trailer that promoted it. In the Super Bowl spot, callbacks to the original film are followed by a promise to finally answer why it all happened.
It’s been 10 years since the word “Cloverfield” first entered the zeitgeist. Paramount (which produced “Paradox” and its predecessors) dropped an intriguingly vague teaser for the then-unnamed movie in front of the original “Transformers.”
“Cloverfield” was a found-footage thriller about a group of friends trying to escape New York City as a massive creature lays waste to it.
The secrecy around it was fascinating, and the movie itself was surprisingly good, mixing human drama with a consistently entertaining monster flick and a willingness to boldly sacrifice its characters to chaos.
Its sequel, which didn’t arrive until 2016, took a different approach and sequestered three strangers in a bunker as an unknown event unfolded outside, using the human desperation for survival to tell a thrillingly claustrophobic story.
At best, the two films are loosely related beyond their names, but that was the fun of it. Sitting through the original and wondering what the heck was going on was only matched by the curiosity of how the second one fit into that world.
Then comes “Paradox,” which, to its credit, does provide the answer it promises. But for all the creativity that preceded it, it’s hard to feel anything but woefully unsatisfied by what’s offered.
In an early scene, a conspiracy theorist is interviewed on TV about how the work to create unlimited power for the Earth — work being done by the crew of the Cloverfield Space Station — could open a door to other dimensions and unleash monsters on our planet.
And that’s exactly what happens, apparently. The crew does open up another dimension when they power up the energy device and end up trapped in an alternate reality. The movie is their attempt to return to their dimension. But when they do, the Earth they left behind is now overrun by creatures like the original “Cloverfield” monster— one of which pops out in the final seconds of “Paradox” in a most unbelievably cheesy way.
“Cloverfield,” as a franchise, was brimming with potential because it confidently kept its secrets close to its chest. It protected them as much as it subverted the expectation of them. It took simple narrative structures and used them to tell larger-than-life stories connected only by breadcrumbs it dropped.
The original film threw its characters and viewers into a situation they knew nothing about with no intention of answering questions. “10 Cloverfield Lane” took a measured approach to arguing humans still might pose a greater threat to each other’s survival than the creatures outside.
But “Paradox” — a movie millions are likely to see simply because its debut was smartly crafted as an event by Netflix — feels like a step backward.
Sure, it does shift the action into space, which is something no one expected when the first film came out. And Netflix deserves its due for its bold launch after the Super Bowl. But it’s a swing and a big miss.
The answer to why this “Cloverfield” story exists ends up being so blatantly obvious, it renders the rest of the film unnecessary and strips it of any mystery. What’s the fun in piecing it all together if the answer is given up front?
As a huge fan of the “Cloverfield” universe in the making, Super Bowl Sunday took me on a whirlwind of emotions, from euphoria to immense disappointment.
A palpable sense of curiosity fueled the first two “Cloverfield” movies and kept the flame burning for what could come from future installments. In one night, “The Cloverfield Paradox” managed to dim, if not extinguish, that potential.
Hunter Ingram is a reporter for the Wilmington (N.C.) StarNews.