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“The Cloverfield Paradox” is the third installement in the Cloverfield anthology film series. It’s also the weakest one by miles. While “Cloverfield” was a really tense, nerve-wracking found footage horror film, and “Cloverfield 10 Lane” was a suspenseful, creepy thriller; “The Cloverfield Paradox” feels just like a pastiche of sci-fi tropes. And because of that, it totally lacks identity.

The movie starts portraying an energy crisis on Earth. To solve that, the most powerful countries in the world start an experiment. It consists on a huge hadron collider built on the space to discover the God Particle (Higgs Boson) and create sustainable and unlimited energy.

The first half hour of the movie is a really good introduction. The stakes are high, and the concept of an experiment to create unlimited energy in space has potential. Also, the cast is pretty talented and they carry the weight of the film well.

But, then, the experiment finishes and everything that was build on the first half hour collapses. The experiment was basically a mere excuse to throw into the movie tons of nonsensical, unconnected sci-fi tropes. Which was this movie’s definition of a Deus Ex Machina. Alien? Checked. Interstellar? Checked. There’s even a bit which I couldn’t help but laugh that felt like The Addams Family in space.

The movie goes then for about an hour more throwing random scenes in your face at an incredibly odd pace and you only wish it stops for good.

And, because this is a Cloverfield movie, there’s obviously some references to the Cloverfield universe. There’s a subplot on Earth which doesn’t go anywhere and it just serves to make a pretty obvious reference to the first movie. And the ending, which I feel it was supposed to feel climatic but it was totally laughable and ridiculous, in one of the worst ending I’ve seen to any movie in years.

I really can’t recommend this movie to anyone. I haven’t lost faith on the franchise because of one misstep, so I can only recommend this movie to anyone who’s interested in the Cloverfield franchise. But you can read the plot online and save yourselves two precious hours of your time. Believe me, you can thank me later.

 

2.5/10