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The Cloverfield Paradox

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The Cloverfield Paradox
Film release poster
Directed byJulius Onah
Screenplay byOren Uziel
Story by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyDan Mindel
Edited by
Music byBear McCreary
Distributed by
Release date
  • February 4, 2018 (2018-02-04) (United States)
Running time
102 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$45 million[2]

The Cloverfield Paradox is a 2018 American science fiction horror film directed by Julius Onah, written by Oren Uziel and Doug Jung, and produced by J. J. Abrams's Bad Robot Productions. It is the third installment in the Cloverfield franchise, following Cloverfield (2008) and 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016). The film stars Daniel Brühl, Elizabeth Debicki, Aksel Hennie, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Chris O'Dowd, John Ortiz, David Oyelowo, and Zhang Ziyi, and follows an international group of astronauts aboard a space station who, after using a particle accelerator to try to solve Earth's energy crisis, must find a way home after accidentally traveling to an alternate dimension.

The film was based on God Particle, a spec script from Oren Uziel which had the main plot of the space station crew but unconnected to Cloverfield. The script was acquired by Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot in 2012. It had been initially planned as part of Paramount's low-budget InSurge distribution label, but following the folding of that label, its production was expanded as a Paramount-distributed film. Only during production did Abrams decide to link the film to Cloverfield, adapting Uziel's screenplay and adding scenes to establish this connection, following the same approach used by 10 Cloverfield Lane from its original script, The Cellar. Abrams saw the ability to use the particle accelerator accident as a means for future events to cause changes in the past, establishing a way to narratively link the Cloverfield franchise together.

Once announced as a yet-named Cloverfield film in late 2016, the film's release was delayed several times. A surprise trailer for the film aired during Super Bowl LII on February 4, 2018, providing the final name of the film and its release on Netflix occurring immediately after the game.[2] Though specific details of Netflix's acquisition of distribution rights were not known, industry analysts believe Netflix's involvement helped to make an otherwise lackluster film profitable for Paramount, whereas a more traditional theatrical release would have ended in a loss.

Despite the unique marketing tactics being praised, the film itself received generally negative reviews from critics, who criticized the messy narrative, writing and editing, with many considering it the weakest of the Cloverfield films, although Mbatha-Raw's performance did receive some praise.[3][4]

Plot

In the year 2028,[5] Earth is suffering from a global energy crisis. The space agencies of the world prepare to test the Shepard particle accelerator aboard the Cloverfield Station, which would provide Earth with infinite energy, while conspiracy theorists fear it will create the "Cloverfield Paradox", opening portals to allow horrors from parallel universes to threaten Earth. Among the crew is Ava Hamilton, who frets about leaving her husband Michael, a doctor, potentially for years, as their relationship struggles since the loss of their children to a house fire.

In orbit, after about two years of unsuccessful testing of the Shepard, they eventually achieve a seemingly stable beam, but it then overloads and creates a power surge on the station. After restoring basic power, they find Earth has vanished from view, and the gyroscope that aids in the station's navigation is missing. As the crew work on repairs, strange events begin to occur, including finding an unfamiliar woman called Jensen fused with wires inside a wall. Volkov fears something crawling beneath his skin and is compelled to craft a gun using an on-board 3D printer. He uses the gun to threaten the crew, but as he does he convulses and dies, and the station's colony of worms bursts out of him. Mundy's arm gets pulled into a solid wall, and then severed clean off; they find the arm roaming of its own volition. When they recognize that it is trying to write something, it instructs them to "cut Volkov open." Once they do they find the missing gyroscope. They quickly locate Earth and restore their communications, but transmissions state that Cloverfield Station was destroyed and fell to Earth 2 days prior.

Jensen is found to be a crew member of the space station but from a different universe. In this universe, Hamilton's children did not die, she stayed on Earth as a civilian engineer, and Jensen replaced Tam as the station's engineer. They plan to reactivate the Shepard device to return to their own universe. While the crew repairs the station, Tam works out a means to make Shepard work properly, but she is killed in a freak accident. Meanwhile, Hamilton decides to return with Jensen to Earth to be with her kids. As they prepare, Mundy is killed in an explosion caused by a strange magnetic field. After the explosion, the station's commander, Kiel, sacrifices himself to disengage a wildly-spinning accelerator ring that was jeopardizing the whole station, leaving Hamilton in charge.

On Earth, Michael wakes up to discover a wave of destruction ravaging the planet, witnessing the silhouette of a giant monster in the distance. On his way to offer his assistance at the local hospital, he stops to help a young girl named Molly. After learning that the hospital has been destroyed, he takes her to an underground shelter belonging to a friend and tends to her wounds.

With Shepard ready to activate again, Hamilton prepares to leave with Jensen, but Jensen suddenly knocks her out. Jensen kills Monk with Volkov's gun, wounds Schmidt, and insists that the station must stay in her universe, to keep the Shepard device there. Regaining consciousness, Hamilton uses the gun to shoot out a window, ejecting Jensen into space. Hamilton decides to return to their universe with Schimdt and makes a recording for her alternate universe self, giving her the plans for the Shepard device and stressing the importance of her family. Hamilton and Schmidt reverse the universe shift and use Tam's modifications to finally make Shepard work. After reporting in, the two eject themselves in an evacuation capsule towards Earth.

Michael learns from mission control of the station's reappearance and his wife's return to Earth, but he lambastes mission control for not warning Hamilton not to return to Earth, in light of the ongoing situation. As the capsule re-enters the Earth's atmosphere, a giant monster comes up roaring through the clouds.

Cast

Additionally, Donal Logue cameos as Mark Stambler, a conspiracy theorist discussing the "Cloverfield Paradox"; reviewers observed that the character shares the same surname as Howard Stambler, the conspiracy theorist portrayed by John Goodman in 10 Cloverfield Lane.[6] Suzanne Cryer, who appeared as Leslie in 10 Cloverfield Lane, also appears in a brief cameo role as a newscaster who interviews Stambler.[6] Simon Pegg and Greg Grunberg, both who have frequently worked with Abrams on other films and television shows, provide vocal cameos as Radio Voice and Joe respectively.[6] Oyelowo and Logue previously portrayed Kiel and Stambler in the film's ARG campaign.

Production

Pre-production

The film was first announced in November 2012, under the title God Particle, based on a script by Oren Uziel and to be directed by Julius Onah. With J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions as the production studio, it was set to be released under Paramount's InSurge label, limiting the film's budget to $5–10 million.[7] At this stage, the film was established to take place on a space station in Earth's orbit and a resulting incident that causes the crew to find Earth has gone missing.[7] Uziel said that his script had been a spec script he wrote about one year after finishing up a similar spec script for Shimmer Lake.[8] The pick-up of the film occurred around the same time that Paramount and Bad Robot bought the rights to the spec script The Cellar by Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken, which ultimately was reworked during production to become 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016), adding in elements to tie that script to the first Cloverfield film; however, when Uziel wrote his screenplay for God Particle it had not been attached to Cloverfield.[8] When Bad Robot acquired the script, J.J. Abrams had already put some thought for how it could fit into Cloverfield but had not come up with a way prior to filming.[9] Abrams liked that with the script, "how something in the future could be an origin for something in the past" to establish origin stories for the other Cloverfield works.[10] Abrams said that the script had "the DNA" that made it a potential Cloverfield film, and was looking for it to be a spiritual sequel to the original.[10]

In March 2015, Paramount decided to close the InSurge label; The Cellar had been moved under the main Paramount label, but God Particle's fate was unclear.[11] By February 2016, Paramount confirmed it would release the film under its own label, with a planned February 2017 release date.[12]

Casting

In March 2016, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and David Oyelowo were confirmed to be cast in the film.[13] In April, Variety reported that John Krasinski was in early talks to join the film to play one of the astronauts,[14] but had a possible conflict due to a commitment with a television series.[15] In May, Elizabeth Debicki,[15] Daniel Brühl,[16] Chris O'Dowd,[17] Zhang Ziyi,[17] John Ortiz,[18] and Aksel Hennie[18] were announced as members of the cast. Cinematographer Dan Mindel was confirmed to join the film from his résumé.[19]

Filming

The film was shot in Los Angeles, California, where it received tax credits under the state's film incentive program.[20] While filming in Los Angeles, the project was shot under the titles of God Particle and Clean Pass.[21] Filming began on June 10, 2016 and wrapped on September 23, 2016.[18] According to Uziel, it was during production that he came to learn that the film was being connected to Cloverfield, requiring him to rewrite a few scenes and added additional shooting.[8] Uziel speculated that the decision to connect to Cloverfield was due to the difficulty in marketing a stand-alone science-fiction film at the time, and felt the connection between the films was more of an anthology series similar to The Twilight Zone, with each movie dealing with how people with complex relations deal with a other-worldly dilemma.[8] The scenes set on Earth were added during production only after they found test audiences wanted to know what was happening on Earth during events on the space station.[9] The final shot of the monster, similar to the creature Clover seen in the first Cloverfield movie, was a shot that the production team came to recognize as a further way to link the films.[10] Among some of the film's Easter eggs includes a figurine of a "Slusho!" mascot aboard the station; the drink brand had been featured in Cloverfield's viral marketing.[10]

Release

Shortly after filing in October 2016, The Wrap learned from insiders of the connection of God Particle to Cloverfield, though neither Paramount or Bad Robot commented on this discovery.[22] However, by December 2016, Paramount affirmed the film's connection; the title God Particle had been dropped in favor of listing the film as "2017 Cloverfield movie".[23]

Alongside the renaming, Paramount reslotted the film's release from February 2017 to October 2017, to give more time for post-production.[23] The film suffered two additional delays. In July 2017, it was announced the release had been delayed another three months to February 2018.[24] In January 2018, the release was moved for a third time, to April 20, 2018.[25] The reason for these latter delays was not given.[26]

In mid-January 2018, the Cloverfield alternative reality game (ARG), which had been used for both of the previous films, was relaunched, and provided some hints how this film would be tied to the other two.[27]

In late January 2018, The Hollywood Reporter stated that Netflix was interested in picking up the film from Paramount, following a similar deal the streaming service had worked out for the film Annihilation. Paramount's chairman Jim Gianopulos felt the film's budget (which ballooned to over $40 million from an initial $5 million) was too large for the film to be profitable with a traditional theatrical release and that it still needed work done, and "while Abrams expressed an intent to get down to business in post-production, it was too little, too late".[28] Following the film's release, The Hollywood Reporter stated that Netflix paid more than $50 million for the rights, with negotiations starting in late December 2017 and completed by mid January 2018; this offer made the film immediately profitable to Paramount. The studio retains China and home entertainment release rights.[29] [30] [31] Abrams in a Q&A session a few days after release did not confirm this, but stated that Paramount took the deal with Netflix as they thought the idea of the immediate release online would be "fun".[9]

Around this time, speculation of the film being named Cloverfield Station arose, though this was not confirmed by Paramount.[28] Further speculation circulated in Hollywood sources that work on the film was actually complete and that its first trailer would be revealed soon; 10 Cloverfield Lane had a similar surprise trailer.[32]

The events of the preceding month culminated on February 4, 2018, where, during a surprise advertisement during Super Bowl LII, Netflix announced it had acquired the premiere rights for the film, now titled The Cloverfield Paradox, and would be available on the service, immediately after the game.[2] According insiders speaking to The Wrap, Paramount felt the surprise reveal and release a good way to keep in line with the mysterious mystique in the franchise, but still plan to use theatrical releases for future films in the series, such as Overlord.[31] The actors themselves were not aware of this arrangement until the day of the Super Bowl, and were told of the title, the advertisement, and the release that day during a morning conference call.[9]

Critical reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 18% based on 77 reviews, with an average rating of 4.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Brilliant casting is overshadowed by a muddled mix of genres and storylines that scratch more heads than sci-fi itches in The Cloverfield Paradox."[33] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews."[34]

John DeFire of The Hollywood Reporter called the film a "trainwreck of a sci-fi flick bent on extending a franchise that should have died a peaceful death almost exactly one decade ago."[35] Writing for Deadline.com Dino-Ray Ramos said, "The Super Bowl trailer for Paradox gave the impression the movie would reveal the origin of the monster that appeared in the 2008 movie and was later on hinted at in the critically acclaimed 2016 follow-up — but it barely did that. Instead, it stalls the franchise as a pastiche of sci-fi cinema veiled in clever marketing."[36]

Caillou Pettis of Daily Film Fix gave the film a negative review and stated it was "a colossal disappointment as its script is incredibly lazy, has next to no suspense, and its characters are unlikable due to thin character development."[37]

Cinemablend gave it a positive reception giving it 4 of 5 stars.[38]

While the film had received negative reviews, the marketing approach, of announcing the film during the Super Bowl and premiering it hours later, was seen as a novel move by Netflix. IGN noted that this strategy would only work for a film in an established franchise, whereas most new films would need a significant marketing period to draw in viewers.[39] Even with knowing that the film may be a critical flop, Netflix would have been able to grab the attention due to the hype from the Super Bowl, and ride the attention that the Cloverfield series had already had.[30]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Film releases". Variety Insight. Archived from the original on February 5, 2018. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
  2. ^ a b c D'Alessandro, Anthony (February 4, 2018). "Netflix's Ultimate Super Bowl Surprise: 'The Cloverfield Paradox' – Watch Trailer". Deadline.com. Retrieved February 4, 2018.
  3. ^ James Hibberd (February 5, 2018). "Netflix Cloverfield sequel trashed by critics: 'An unholy mess'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
  4. ^ Jean Bentley (February 5, 2018). "The Cloverfield Paradox Wastes Fresh Marketing on Disappointing Release". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
  5. ^ Dornbush, Jonathan (February 5, 2018). "How The Cloverfield Paradox Ties Together The Cloververse". IGN.
  6. ^ a b c Shepherd, Jack (February 7, 2018). "The Cloverfield Paradox: All the Easter Eggs, cameos and references to other Cloverfield films". The Independent. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
  7. ^ a b Kroll, Justin (November 30, 2012). "'God Particle' believes in newbie helmer". Variety. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
  8. ^ a b c d Chitwood, Adam (May 17, 2017). "Exclusive: 'God Particle' Writer Oren Uziel on How the Film Became a Cloverfield Movie". Collider.com. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
  9. ^ a b c d Robinson, Tasha (February 7, 2018). "Cloverfield Paradox was already shooting before J.J. Abrams figured out how to make it a Cloverfield movie". The Verge. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
  10. ^ a b c d Shepherd, Jack (February 8, 2018). "JJ Abrams on The Cloverfield Paradox, Star Wars 9, and going to the movies". The Independent. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
  11. ^ Kroll, Justin (March 23, 2015). "Paramount's Insurge Gets Absorbed; Bad Robot's 'The Cellar' Moves to Big Studio". Variety. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
  12. ^ McNary, Dave (February 16, 2016). "J.J. Abrams' Space Thriller 'God Particle' Gets 2017 Release Date". Variety. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
  13. ^ Han, Angie (March 29, 2016). "J.J. Abrams-Produced 'God Particle' Casts David Oyelowo and Gugu Mbatha-Raw". /Film. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
  14. ^ Kroll, Justin (April 12, 2016). "John Krasinski Circles J.J. Abrams Sci-Fi Thriller 'God Particle' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved May 6, 2016.
  15. ^ a b Kroll, Justin (May 5, 2016). "'Night Manager's' Elizabeth Debicki Joins J.J. Abrams' 'God Particle' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved May 6, 2016.
  16. ^ Kit, Borys (May 10, 2016). "'Civil War' Star Daniel Bruhl in Talks to Join J.J. Abrams' 'God Particle' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 11, 2016.
  17. ^ a b "Chris O'Dowd Joins Bad Robot's God Particle". May 26, 2016. Retrieved July 12, 2016.
  18. ^ a b c McNary, Dave (May 27, 2016). "John Ortiz, Aksel Hennie Join J.J. Abrams Sci-Fi Thriller 'God Particle'". Retrieved July 12, 2016.
  19. ^ "Dan Mindel – CINEMATOGRAPHER" (PDF).
  20. ^ Robb, David (April 19, 2016). "On-Location L.A. Film Production Up Nearly 24% In Q1". Deadline. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
  21. ^ "Film and Television Tax Credit Program" (PDF). California Film Commission. August 1, 2017. p. 5. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 4, 2017.
  22. ^ Donnelly, Matt (October 26, 2016). "JJ Abrams' 'God Particle' Is Next Film in Cloverfield Series (Exclusive)". The Wrap. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
  23. ^ a b McNary, Dave (December 8, 2016). "J.J. Abrams' 'God Particle' Pushed to October, Renamed 'Cloverfield Movie'". Variety. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
  24. ^ Dave McNary (July 21, 2017). "Paramount Pushes 'Cloverfield Movie' Back to 2018". Retrieved August 13, 2017.
  25. ^ Nyren, Erin (January 2, 2018). "J.J. Abrams' Next 'Cloverfield' Installment 'God Particle' Shifts Release Date Again". Variety. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
  26. ^ Desta, Yohana (January 3, 2018). "What's Going on with God Particle, the Delayed Cloverfield Sequel?". Vanity Fair. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
  27. ^ Dornbush, Jonathan (January 31, 2018). "Cloverfield 3: Rumors, Clues, And Theories About What's Going On In The Cloverfield Universe". IGN. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
  28. ^ a b Kit, Borys (January 23, 2018). "Netflix in Talks to Acquire 'Cloverfield' Sequel From Paramount". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 24, 2018.
  29. ^ "Sources: Netflix Paid Paramount More Than $50 Million for 'Cloverfield Paradox'". Netflix.
  30. ^ a b Kit, Borys; McClintonk, Pamela (February 6, 2018). "Sources: Netflix Paid Paramount More Than $50 Million for 'Cloverfield Paradox'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
  31. ^ a b Fuster, Jeremy (February 6, 2018). "Paramount to Release JJ Abrams' 'Overlord' Despite Shuffling 'Cloverfield Paradox' to Netflix". The Wrap. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
  32. ^ Libbey, Dirk (January 29, 2018). "Cloverfield 3's First Trailer May Debut Sooner Than We Thought". Cinema Blend. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
  33. ^ "The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved February 7, 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  34. ^ "The Cloverfield Paradox Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved February 6, 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  35. ^ DeFore, John (February 4, 2018). "'The Cloverfield Paradox': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
  36. ^ Ramos, Dino-Ray (February 5, 2018). "'The Cloverfield Paradox' Review: A Mishmash Of Sci-Fi Tropes That Leaves More Unanswered Questions Behind". Deadline.com. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
  37. ^ "Review: THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX – DailyFilmFix.com". dailyfilmfix.com. Retrieved February 8, 2018.
  38. ^ Reyes, Mike (February 5, 2018). "The Cloverfield Paradox Review". CINEMABLEND. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
  39. ^ Bibbiani, William (February 5, 2018). "The Cloverfield Gimmick: How Netflix Tricked The World". IGN. Retrieved February 5, 2018.

External links

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