The Cloverfield Paradox (2018) - Review

"We're not in Kentucky anymore."

10 years later, and we finally get the answers to what the hell is going on in JJ Abrams "Cloverfield" universe, and it is wholly satisfying. The Cloverfield Paradox ties two separate films (2008's Cloverfield and 2016's 10 Cloverfield Lane) into one of the most unique trilogies in film.

In The Cloverfield Paradox, a team in the not too distant future is sent up in space to a satellite in an effort to solve Earth's rapid resource depletion. When the firing of a particle accelerator goes wrong, the crew finds themselves caught in a different, frightening dimension.

What The Cloverfield Paradox continues the strength of the previous two entries in the series - keeping things fresh. Cloverfield was a monster movie, 10 Cloverfield Lane was a claustrophobic horror turned alien invasion movie, and The Cloverfield Paradox is a sci-fi thriller. The use of dimension crossing is imaginative, and the scares and twists are well done, surprising throughout.

The weakest part of the film is the acting. Despite boasting actors like Daniel Bruhl, David Oyelowo, John Ortiz and Chris O'Dowd, the acting is serviceable at best. The dialogue is not particularly well-written, however Chris O'Dowd's character Mundy does have a number of spot-on laugh lines.

Without spoiling anything, long-time Cloverfield fans and theorists will want to keep their eye on satellites in the film, as well as the previous two. That certainly is the through-line of the trilogy, and the final 30 seconds are a completely satisfying finale to this series.

I'd also like to quickly shout-out how cool the way in which they released this film was. No news, no announcements, then all of a sudden a Super Bowl trailer. And to top if all off, they drop it IMMEDIATELY after the game. I thought the marketing for Cloverfield and 10 Cloverfield Lane were epic, but this may have been Bad Robot's mic drop.

While the dialogue is weak and the character development is sub-par, the strength of the ingenious way the film ties into the previous two and answers our questions in an unexpected way, coupled with this being a more-or-less free Netflix release, The Cloverfield Paradox does more than enough to warrant a FULL PRICE viewing.