The newest (and, again, totally surprising) addition to the Cloverfield franchise is a radical game-changer, one that works in incredible ways but also doesn't in some. It's, fittingly, a paradox of a movie.
Think Alien (or, really, its updated version in Life) meets Solaris with a hint of Interstellar thrown in. In 2028, a team of international space scientists on a massive space station test a particle accelerator in the hopes of providing limitless energy for Earth. As we fully expect, something goes awry -- or, possibly, it worked a little too well -- and the beam creates a power surge. When all is seemingly restored, the team realizes that the Earth isn't outside their viewport anymore. Trying to curb the panic, the crew works to repair damages and scan the area for recognizable space. Strange things begin to happen (horrifying things, really) on board, mostly involving body horror, before the crew realize they've been --
Nope. I can't say anymore.
Does it sound like a standalone sci-fi thriller? It probably should. Apparently this film started as The God Particle and had nothing to do with an existing franchise. Once the movie changed hands though, a few additional scenes were added that connect this film to Cloverfield, and not just because the space station shares that name! A subplot involves a scientist's husband, still planetside, as the earth crumbles into chaos from the sudden appearance of monsters. The titular "Paradox", a conspiracy theory warning against testing the particle accelerator, articulates a fear that the experimental tool will open portals to other dimensions and create anomalies (such as the ones experienced on the station) that could threaten Earth. Apparently this is the origin story for the Cloverfield movies, even though it takes place in the future. Perhaps the time jump is another effect of the particle accelerator?
I really want to discuss finer points of this movie with you, but I'll try to leave it at that.
It's gotten some negative attention, and I'm really not sure why. It's not the sharpest script in the world and it's got some production flaws. But it's a really fun way to spend 100 minutes.
The film seems to be doing some great meta-things with the franchise, which I think deserves a lot of attention. This installment particularly flirts with a lot of genre boundaries, pushing its central character study of one scientist (played excellently by Gugu Mbatha-Raw). It's got a fabulous ensemble cast doing some solid work. It's got the science fiction experiment-gone-wrong stuff. It's got the ghostly presence of alien doubles and an imposter. It's got body horror and giant alien monsters. It's got trippy special effects and some chilly space thrills.
The movie -- and I can't believe I'm saying this -- works best because of all these disparate elements. Does it answer all the questions it raises? Hell no. But it doesn't have to. What the movie is doing is challenging our expectations of movies made for streaming, of sequels and franchise-building, and of this franchise in particular. This film is just short of being a thematic anthology in itself, and it simultaneously solidifies Cloverfield as being a sort of anthology series. We've had the found-footage flick, disaster movie, and post-apocalyptic thriller; now we get full-blown science fiction horror, surrealism and inter-dimension-ality, and the added bonus of chronology-bending.
This is one of the most surprising films in recent memory, not just because its existence and marketing was so unexpected, but because it's a total thrill ride that keeps turning dramatic corners. I never really knew what was going to happen next. And now I can't wait to see where the franchise goes.
IMDb: The Cloverfield Paradox
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