The Cloverfield Paradox

Instead of hitting theaters in April as planned, The Cloverfield Paradox got a surprise release on Netflix immediately following the Super Bowl. While I’m a big fan of the first two installments, J.J. Abrams and his Bad Robot Productions have got to be kidding trying to call this third film a legitimate chapter in the series. Originally called God Particle, a standalone sci-fi film directed by Julius Onah, sometime during production, Bad Robot turned it into a Cloverfield film. How so? There are a few short, badly constructed scenes shoehorned into the narrative, including a 10-second final shot that feels like a total cheat. The plot here involves a space station trying to create a free power source to revitalize a struggling Earth. The crew accidentally zap themselves into another dimension. While they struggle to find their way home, there are events unfolding back on Earth that might’ve made for a better movie, but the one we get is an Event Horizon rip-off and an overall muddled mess.