The Cloverfield Paradox

"My arm helped us find the Earth!" This was written and filmed by people who love not only the original Cloverfield, but all of the space adventures of Alien, starting with a conversational episode of Star Trek. The Cloverfield Paradox is a strangely likeable film that barely stands on its own two feet and comes up with the most absurd paths to connect to its predecessor, yet it’s the process of connecting to a fictional world in motion that delivers a remarkably unpredictable and entertaining game with the viewer, starting from the opening minutes and ending with a perfectly bizarre last shot. Unfortunately, given the mood and physicality of the previous episodes, this is ultimately a maddeningly uneven project, naively weaving horror elements with over-the-top humour and blatantly ripping off just about any space sci-fi despite the original premise of the overarching plot. The fact that, after the psychologically and directorially tight second one, we get an ordinary B-movie with which less talented filmmakers try to pay tribute to everything and to reveal the mystery of the monster through unconvincing dimensional portals that is simply disappointing. I appreciate a few witty ideas and the effort to maintain a similarly limited narrative that lays down more than it solves, but here it has merely "bitten" more than one good film can chew. (05/02/2018)

It was passable. Although it has almost nothing in common with the previous episodes and is clearly the weakest, it's still watchable. Story-wise, it's a rip-off of all the better known sci-fi properties, but the kills are pretty good. Visually it's OK, and the crew is also passable, there's always something going on, so there's no boredom either, so an average three stars without a problem. 55% (27/02/2018)

The Cloverfield Paradox tries to be a smart film, but fails on more than one front. You can never have too many alternate reality films, but in this case I found it bland and unpolished. I was expecting a larger dose of suspense and action from a film set on a spaceship that suddenly finds itself in trouble. On the other hand, the dramatic line didn't work either (Ava and her family). In many ways, the film is similar to Life and Aliens, but qualitatively it is quite different. As a result, you sense an obvious yet untapped potential. (04/04/2020)

The Americans decided to turn the original found footage Cloverfield movie into their cash cow, so they keep shooting one flick from this universe after another. In film in particular, you have to ask yourself what the Monster has to do with a space ship flying somewhere through space. There’s really no logic in this connection. But it’s still a b-movie with the most stellar cast in the last thirty years or so. So technically it looks fine, the cast is good, but you still cannot shake the feeling that you’re watching a terrible bullshit that makes no sense. This movie is a prime example of the thin line separating good sci-fi movies with a message from pieces of horrible crap. (28/04/2020)

It’s terribly unfocused. The first half is satisfying overall – you can see the production values, the actors are decent and there are a couple of relatively interesting ideas. Unfortunately, it ends up strangely splitting into individual episodes where there’s always someone whose job is to scream, all while running around in the generic interiors of a spaceship. In a better written film, the final conflict between the astronauts of the first and second dimensions could have been a central premise, the basis of a fantastic dilemma and a suffocating atmosphere. But not in this film, which carefully walks around the interesting themes. The connection with Cloverfield is a decent base, but not very well delivered. I’m rating it at about 50%, I’m disappointed with the resulting quality of the film, though that could have been expected given the delays and the release straight to Netflix. (06/02/2018)