What was supposed to be an original sci-fi movie about the Earth disappearing, “The God Particle” eventually became a Cloverfield movie with The Cloverfield Paradox.
The movie was delayed from its last year release, but during this past Sunday’s Super Bowl, it was revealed that not only had Netflix picked up the flick, but that The Cloverfield Paradox would be available immediately on the streaming network!
What a treat!
Well, not so much.
I’m not actually a huge fan of the Cloverfield movies to begin with and feel that The Cloverfield Paradox pretty much fits right in with the previous two in terms of quality. They’re more or less “SYFY” movies, but with J.J. Abrams name attached (who was never good at doing space movies, mind you).
While The Cloverfield Paradox is getting slammed by critics (probably because it didn’t debut in theaters, which is why they slammed Bright), I felt it was “okay.” What I didn’t like about it was that it was highly predictable and also seemed a convenient way to explain the occurrences of the previous two Cloverfield movies. I would have much rather they just kept it unknown (assuming the accelerator is the reason for everything happening). The special effects and acting were fine, so I didn’t have a problem there. I think if you have been a fan of Star Trek, science-fiction or even comic books, you saw the plot of The Cloverfield Paradox coming from a mile away, which took the wind out of its sails (even my nine-year-old was guessing what was going to happen). That said, since The Cloverfield Paradox is on Netflix, it’s basically free, and you can pause it whenever you want or what have you, which is something you can’t do in theaters, so basically you have your “money” back right there.
Getting back to the critics, The Cloverfield Paradox Rotten Tomatoes score is in, and it comes in at 20%, with 45 Rotten reviews to 11 Fresh.
Perhaps the more important score is the audience rating, which comes in higher at 58% having liked it, but yet still pretty low.
Comparing The Cloverfield Paradox to its previous two movies, the first 2008 Cloverfield movie comes in at 77% among the critics, with 68% of the audience having liked it; the second, which starred John Goodman, 10 Cloverfield Lane, received a whopping 90% from critics, with 79% of the audience liking it.
I think when it comes down to it, The Cloverfield Paradox wasn’t meant to originally be a Cloverfield movie, but since it “fit,” they lazily made it a part of the franchise.
