By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
For as long as Hollywood studios have existed, so too have meddling studio executives who decide to tweak artistic visions or, in most cases, trample over everything the director intended in the pursuit of a bigger box office haul. One of the worst examples of interference can be found on Netflix with The Cloverfield Paradox, a film that started life as an original sci-fi thriller, God Particle, that was repurposed to be a spiritual sequel to the smash-hit found-footage kaiju film Cloverfield with all the grace and tact of a 20-story sea monster. What should have been a fun new sci-fi anthology series was snuffed out before it ever had a chance.
The Cloverfield Paradox Is Two Movies Mashed Together
The Cloverfield Paradox is set in the near future when humanity is facing an energy crisis and has turned into a highly experimental particle accelerator capable of opening rifts into other dimensions. Of course, that’s what happens, but the result is low-grade body horror with the shift, in reality, resulting in limbs, objects, lab animals, and even the Cloverfield Space Station itself turning up in unexpected places. On its own, the story is a decent, though poorly paced sci-fi horror that had the potential to be another cult classic like Event Horizon, but instead, it has “Cloverfield” in its name, and that’s the entire problem.
Instead of God Particle earning praise for genuine off-putting moments involving its overqualified cast, which includes David Oyelowo, Marvel vets Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Loki), Daniel Bruhl (Captain America: Civil War) and Elizabeth Debicki (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2), and the IT Crowd’s Chris O’Dowd, most discussion around The Cloverfield Paradox is centered around how it turned the promising franchise into something entirely unrecognizable for fans. J.J. Abrams, a producer on the film, undercut the lightning-in-a-bottle appeal of Cloverfield and failed to match the tense, uneasy horror of the John Goodman-led 10 Cloverfield Lane by, again, trying to turn a stand-alone film into part of a franchise.
The J.J. Abrams Problem
10 Cloverfield Lane was originally titled The Cellar and was altered by J.J. Abrams and his company, Bad Robot, to connect to Cloverfield, even if it is the thinnest of connections. The Cloverfield Paradox suffered even more by having an explanation for what exactly was going on behind the scenes of the previous two movies that let the tension out with all the sad disappointment of air leaving a children’s balloon. If the scientists triggered a multiversal event that connects multiple dimensions where anything can happen at any time, then the stakes and danger are pushed so absurdly high that, ironically, it means nothing truly matters.
Ever since the surprise success of Cloverfield, boosted by the guerrilla marketing campaign that kept the monster a secret until release, and in fact, the movie’s first trailer didn’t even include a title; Abrams has been teasing an elaborate universe of related films. Today, he’s still promising more films in the Cloververse, with even The Batman’s Matt Reeves involved with one of them. The truth, as revealed with The Cloverfield Paradox’s awkward attempts at being part of the franchise, is that Abrams is like Battlestar Galactica creator Ronald D. Moore, and there never was a plan.
The Cloverfield Paradox did prove, with its stealth release right after the Philadelphia Eagles won Super Bowl LII by overthrowing the New England Patriots dynasty, that slapping “Cloverfield” onto a script is good for millions of viewers to tune in. The film was an immediate record-setting hit for Netflix, but by then, people had actually watched the film and realized that J.J. Abrams, the creator of Lost and one of the men who helped destroy Star Wars, was all sizzle and no steak. No matter how great the setup is or how intriguing the mystery may seem, Abrams has no idea how to write an ending, and by forcing a second movie to retroactively fit his vision, he can’t build a franchise.
Watch The Cloverfield Paradox on Netflix, and even on your first viewing, you’ll be able to see the original script and then everything J.J. Abrams added and the resulting monstrosity that’s still less rewarding than Cloverfield fanfiction.
