The Cloverfield Paradox was directed by Julius Onah and is the 3rd installment of the Cloverfield Franchise. It is no secret I am a big fan of the previous Cloverfield films, 10 Cloverfield Lane being one of my favorite films of 2016, so watching the announcement trailer during the Super Bowl was easily the highlight of my evening. After watching the film, I was immediately perplexed by how I felt about this film. Part of me loved it and the other part was a little hesitant to dive into this movie fully. I think the reason for this is this movie is beyond abstract, it is a Sci-Fi horror movie that doesn't deal with conventional Sci-Fi Horror tropes. The Cloverfield Paradox is by far the most far-fetched on the Cloverfield movies.. Which is saying something because the original Cloverfield was a little out there. So as a viewer if you jump on the crazy train along with Onah you will be in for a very fun and exciting ride.
Let's dive deep into what worked best for The Cloverfield Paradox:
1. Direction- The direction of this film was very impressive. Onah had a large task ahead of him, he had to create a sense of horror without having anything physical to react on. With most horror films we get to react against a "villain" or "monster" in the film. The Cloverfield Paradox didn't have that luxury. Onah had to create a sense of horror that was purely psychological. Movies that have tried to tackle this concept in the past were films like the Final Destinations, where they are reacting to an unseen force or terror. Those movies never really managed to be as good as they had the potential to. Onah hit it out of the park. He managed to create a sense of horror in the abstract and proved to do it in excellent fashion. The Cloverfield Paradox easily fit into the contained movie style that the two previous films had. Whenever Sci-Fi horror is happening, it is easy to get larger than life and become too big to engage, movies like The 4th Kind or Dark Skies abandon all rationality and get too huge losing a majority of their audience in the process. The Cloverfield Paradox, however, scales it down quite a bit and creates a small and contained sense of horror.
2. Acting- The acting in this film was really what could make or break this film. Fortunately, this was a very well acted and well performed movie. I wasn't uneasy by anyone on screen really. I though the on screen chemistry was very well done and I was impressed overall by the gripping and gritty performances by this cast. I would like to see these cast members get another go at a Sci-Fi movie as I thought they all handled themselves very well. Especially with any form of Sci-Fi you never want the actor to just sound like they spew science jargon, I never thought these actors came across this way. One of my biggest complaints with most modern TV shows like The Flash, is they just say so much jargon in an attempt to seem "smart" and it gets annoying. The Cloverfield Paradox didn't have this. All of these actors delivered their performances in a way that they just felt intelligent naturally.
3. Pacing- This was easily the best part of this film. I think that pacing is something not too many people talk about within a film, unless, it is done really poorly. With horror films or thrillers pacing means everything. If a movie is rushed it never allows the viewer to build the tension back up but if it is too slow the tension just falls apart completely. I am sure I could've mentioned this behind the direction of Onah but it was just too perfect to not mention on it's own. The speed of this movie was quick, it wasted no time jumping into the meat of the film and once there it was fast paced. But it was this way in such a smart and intelligent way. The quick pacing of this movie was done in a way that it matched the horror that was being portrayed. The big horror element of this film was the confusion the characters were suffering from. So with a very fast paced movie we got to see to the confusion in the characters because they never had the time to sit around and think too hard about the situation they were in. That being said it was never too fast for the audience. It was near perfect in how everything was laid out in terms of progression within the film.
I did have some flaws with this movie:
1. The script/story- Now, I had to think a lot about this before writing this review. I came to the conclusion that I do have an issue with the continuity and script of this film. This movie was meant to be in the same universe and world as the first two Cloverfield films. But it almost abandoned the continuity of these two films. It became almost too theoretical which just leaves the audience in this constant state of ambiguity. Some movies are meant to leave questions unanswered, movies like It Comes At Night is such a perfect example of leaving questions for the audience. The main difference between It Comes At Night and The Cloverfield Paradox is simply how its structured. It Comes At Night was built on a question, the entire premise came directly from one question and it is a movie the explores that. The Cloverfield Paradox was never based off a question, in fact they had several news stories and exposition answer the main question this movie had. So the ending of this film left me with way more questions than I had going in. Some of which you can theorize off of and draw your own conclusions to some of which you will just never be able to. I wasn't confused by the multi-dimensional story, I was just sad that they left it in such a state of ambiguity. I felt like this movie was never fully resolved in the manner the other two films were.
2. The Color Grading- This was easily the biggest and hardest issue I had with this movie. The color-grading of this movie countered the tone Onah was going for too much. This movie had a very serious and almost darker tone but the color of this movie was near vibrant and bright. It just felt off the entire duration of this film. I think if the color grading of this film was toned down just a little bit more it would've fit far much better within the tone.
Overall, I had a pretty good time with The Cloverfield Paradox. I thought it was a very fun and serviceable Sci-Fi Horror film. However, it did struggle quite a bit with the color grading and the story of this film within the continuity with the two other Cloverfield films. I felt this film was a little lazy at times in terms of story telling. This was an enjoyable film but it wasn't the best in the franchise. I am going to give The Cloverfield Paradox a B-.
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