The first Cloverfield (2008) also sort of dropped from nowhere, not quite as quickly, but with similar surprise. With little marketing in advance, suddenly trailers were released with a kaiju style story meshed with "found footage" which was all the rage back then and a cult following was born. The film is great B-movie fun and the audience took it that way.
10 Cloverfield Lane was also a surprise late into the production of the film it was revealed the movie would not only change names but be connected to Cloverfield (loosely) creating sudden interest as the movie was just about to be released. There wasn't years of build up to a sequel like we usually expect from a film series. Suddenly we had another chapter to enjoy and this one hit with a little more power. Okay, a lot more power. 10 Cloverfields Lane's biggest sin is that it's a very strong movie. It pushed the series to a height it likely wasn't prepared for. These were low budget b-movie inspired adventures set in a chaotic world that we didn't quite understand. Yet this intense character study was clever, tight, and moving. So now anything to follow is going to seem like a disappointment...
And that's where The Cloverfield Paradox comes in. A weaker scripts but honestly still as b-movie fun as the first movie, which a multi-racial cast which centres a woman of colour without feeling contrived, The Cloverfeld Paradox is a tribute to trapped-in-a-space-station-with-an-unknown-threat (think Deadspace, Sunshine, Pandorum, and of coarse Alien) and goes on all cylinders for pretty much the whole film. There isn't much down time (the back on Earth plot is really the thing that pulls it down) the film is efficient and tight. It's a fun little romp with multidimensional weirdness. Sure it's not 10 Cloverfield Lane but that doesn't mean it's not good. I had fun watching it and intend on watching it again.
As I said, the film's main weakness is trying to explain to much. It should have left more mystery. We should never have seen what was going on back on Earth and like the previous films it should have left the monstrous stuff more mysterious. We don't need to see it. Just give us what we came for, terrified beautiful smart people fighting to survive something unexplainable in space. We'll make our own connections to the Cloverfield world with the smallest of hints.
But I think the marketing is partially to blame. People (and when I say people I mean mostly critics and film industry folks) are still having a hard time legitimizing any films which debut on Netflix. Films like Mudbound and Beasts of No Nation would have been given many more awards if not for the struggle so many have to acknowledge these films. And Netflix's other original movies aren't getting the same attention that weaker films get when released in theatres. Some are problematic, like I said, Paradox isn't perfect, but in this Rotten Tomatoes world where scores pile on and are simplified to clean numbers, decisions on how to see films are made on the slightest of information. And films which have wonderful divisive stories or are told in interesting ways which may not speak to everybody, get sorted into fresh or rotten with no grey area. Netflix has taken a chance on some of these, the charmingly fun Bright for example. But people don't want films that take these chances to be good because it upsets our understanding of what is supposed to be good. So perhaps this is the perfect home for a film like Paradox, but it doesn't help overcome the prejudice it already has to face.
And it's too bad because the way this film was released is exactly in the spirit of this franchise. Finding a way to surprise us like Beyonce releasing a new album. I hope it keeps coming up with innovative ways to reinvent how its movies are distributed. It's all part of the fun.
As the internet piles on and the film isn't given a chance to be appreciated for what it is, at least those who do want to experience it and enjoy it even with some flaws can do so without having to worry it will disappear from cinemas before they get their chance. And if you've enjoyed these movies so far, I think Paradox was fun and just what I needed.
The Cloverfield Paradox
Starring: Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Daniel Bruehl, Daniel Oyelowo, Zhang Ziyi, Chris O'Dowd, John Ortiz, Elizabeth Debicki, Aksel Hennie, Roger Davies
Director: Julius Onah
Writers: Oren Uziel, Doug Jung
No comments:
Post a Comment