J.J. Abrams has a thing for bending reality. It's no surprise, therefore, that his favorite tactic would infiltrate his "Cloverfield" productions, which contain enough ambiguity to inspire ceaseless conjecturing.
What's significant about Netflix/Paramount's "The Cloverfield Paradox", directed by Julius Onah and written by Oren Uziel and Doug Jung, is its confirmation that intersecting realities do, in fact, characterize the franchise. With this turn, the Cloverfield Monster, which freaked us out in the first film and whose friends ultimately crept their way into the character-driven "10 Cloverfield Lane", is finally explained...more or less...
"The Cloverfield Paradox" takes place in 2028 and to extend the futurism, the story occurs predominately in space. The catalyst for the mission is one of energy attainment, capped by a temporal rift that the crew triggers. Ripples in time spew forth, therefore, along with monsters that can drop into any time frame or any reality.
Though the concept is ambitious, the film's structure is simple, feeling like a well crafted "Alien" or "Event Horizon" knockoff. The crew argues and speculates on matters, especially when the Earth vanishes from view, with Daniel Bruhl; Aksel Hennie; Gugu Mbatha-Raw; Chris O'Dowd; John Ortiz; Daniel Oyelowo; and Zhang Ziyi, making the circumstances seem plausible through their exchanges. To reinforce their reality-rifting theorizing, Gotham's Donal Logue grants a "transmitted" guest appearance as Mark Stambler: an evident relative of John Goodman's Howard in "10 Cloverfield Lane".
There's also an enigmatic woman named Jensen, played with chilly effectiveness by Elizabeth Debicki, who pops out of nowhere, thus adding to the nervous what-is-reality debates. Actually, Jensen lends a lot to the film's odd atmosphere, at times presenting a David Bowie "Man Who Fell to Earth" melancholy to the part, but at other times, seeming more in line with Florence Marley's Queen of Blood.
References to the Tagruato company and its silly Slusho drink (a substance allegedly culled from the deep sea) weave through the story's dark progression, just as such did in earlier chapters. (To be honest, none of that sprinkled stuff ever excited me; I always yearned for broad-range links.) Through it all, we learn that tinkering with nature (i.e., playing God), whether above or below, in this dimension or any other, isn't the best choice.
Then again, we learned this from past monster movies, in particular those featuring mutant, city-stomping behemoths, which inspired the first "Cloverfield". We press the limits of science, toy with the sacred fabric of things, and demons, big and small, come to life. And as we've learned from the "Alien" franchise (especially "Prometheus" and "Covenant"), those demons can sometimes merge with us, accentuating our worst traits: Goodman's Stambler is an excellent case in point. "The Cloverfield Paradox" participants come to realize this, too, as a number of them fall victim to the curse even before the real trouble starts.
Though it has many commendable traits, what will please fans most is the way "The Cloverfield Paradox" helps merge the parts. That's good. We needed a foundation for the sake of a continuation. Even so, there are still many unanswered questions left by the time the credits roll, though I'm sure some will be tackled in the fourth installment, subtitled "Overlord", which unlike this "paradox" is set for a full-fledged, theatrical release. It'll be interesting to see what Abrams and his recruits cook up for that one.
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