The Cloverfield Paradox: Genius Marketing for a Bad Movie

Put aside all the reviews for a second. I think we can all agree. That was one of the coolest ways to release a movie. I was sitting there during the Super Bowl commercials waiting to get back to the game. And then all of a sudden a trailer started to play. Not only was it a trailer for the next Cloverfield movie. But it was dropping on Netflix that night.

I lost my mind. Like everyone else did at the time.

I wanted the game to end just so I could jump online and watch it. I went into it without knowing anything whatsoever. Everyone was watching it for the first time. Including critics. And that was incredibly exciting. Watching this thing really felt like an event. And coming off of 10 Cloverfield Lane, I thought it was going to be amazing.

That being said, the movie is a disaster.

The Cloverfield Paradox takes place sometime in the near future. The world is at the brink of war. And society is running out of energy. A group of scientific researchers aboard a space station orbiting Earth are working on a solution. They are trying to harness a new kind of energy with a particle accelerator. But the experiment goes wrong. Of course. A parallel dimension is opened and monsters begin to wreak havoc back on Earth. So now, we have a movie.

In a way, Netflix is genius. They disguised the movie like an awesome surprise. They knew we were all waiting for this movie. And they knew we would all be watching the Super Bowl. And at the same time, they managed to sneak it past critics. The Rottentomatoes score would have scared people away from watching it. There’s no doubt about that. I have to give Netflix props. They knew what they were doing. Good one Netflix.

I really wanted to love this movie. I saw the first Cloverfield and 10 Cloverfield Lane in theaters. And I love them both. I had extremely high expectations for The Cloverfield Paradox. Like I’m sure we all did. The trailer was fantastic. And Netflix made it seem like a big game changer for the franchise.

But from the very beginning, watching this movie was a constant struggle. It seemed to drag on. The plot got progressively more confusing, ridiculous, and hard to follow. And I gradually lost all interest in the story. I tried really hard to keep up with it and stay invested. But eventually, I gave up. I was incredibly bored, frustrated, and upset that the movie was turning out to be such a disaster.

I was left hoping for some big pay off at the end. Like 10 Cloverfield Lane. Anything that could redeem this movie. And sure enough, they tried to throw a big crowd-pleaser at the end. But it was just the cherry on top to an already bad movie. It left me starring at the screen in awe. It was laughable bad.

I know I’ve been pretty harsh on this movie. But it wasn’t a complete train-wreck. It was okay. It had an interesting premise. Some of the easter eggs and references to the other movies were pretty cool. And I appreciate that it tried to be different and expand the Cloverfield universe. I’m still excited to see where they take it. But this movie just isn’t nearly as great as the other two Cloverfield movies. And trying to connect everything will make your head spin.

I’m worried the franchise is going the route of Transformers. Everything will just stop making sense. And now they introduced alternate dimensions. So they could go that route. And they would have an excuse. But I really hope they don’t.

The first Cloverfield was so great because it was simple. And at the same time there was a lot of mystery to it. There weren’t particle accelerators and alternate dimensions. Now the franchise seems built on someone taking an existing script that has nothing to do with Cloverfield at all. And they find a way to shoehorn it into the universe somehow. That’s not how you build a franchise.

Just make a movie that’s supposed to be a Cloverfield movie.

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