Produced by J.J. Abrams and directed by Julius Onah, "The Cloverfield Paradox" is the third installment in the franchise, and by far the most adventurous and experimental. The sci-fi horror takes on a look and feel closer to "Event Horizon" or "Supernova" and less like a monster movie. It stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, David Oyelowo, Daniel Brühl, John Ortiz, Chris O'Dowd, Aksel Hennie, Zhang Ziyi, Elizabeth Debicki, and Roger Davies.
The story is a complicated, complex stitching of several sci-fi tropes filled with quantum mechanics, physics and a lot of science stuff I don't know enough about to be impressed or aggrevated. I do get enough of what Data or Seven-Of-Nine tells me on Star Trek to think "that makes since. And I love 'The Big Bang Theory'. Other than that I take a movie's premise on face value when watching sci-fi. So I was intrigued with the story here on theoretical merit alone.
The acting in "The Cloverfield Paradox" is lukewarm. The cast is a collection of notable talent, yet most performances either fell a bit flat or seemed two-dimensional. It has some pretty good moments that seem to happen surprisingly and randomly during some dialog scenes, and some of the action moments are cool. Alot of the time though you can almost hear the word "action". Not really but...
Now I dug the special effects. The settings had an almost revamped "2001 : Space Odyssey" feel and the CGI is theatre quality. The last third is really the only indication this is a Cloverfield movie, and the ending is one you know is coming way in advanced, but it is a cool ending. I kinda felt I was watching more of a prequel explaining the real story about what went down that caused the first film to happen. Overall the film is a mixed bag but as disjointed as it seems it has some entertaining moments. (2.5/5)
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