Post by Gojitron on Feb 7, 2018 12:52:46 GMT -5
This is one I was wondering about when I put together my 2018 films list. With no firm release date and rumors of a Netflix release, the trailer was a Superbowl surprise and Netflix released it right after the game. The trailer promised (somewhat) that the mystery of the Cloverfield monster would be revealed. Was the mystery revealed? Was it a good film? In both cases…..not really. Spoilers ahead…..
In the year 2028, a group of international scientists aboard the Cloverfield space station test the Shepherd, a particle accelerator that they hope will solve the world’s energy crisis. The test shunts them into an alternate dimension where strange things start happening. If you’ve seen any sci-fi movie in the past 40 years where there’s a group of people in space, underwater, the arctic, etc., you know exactly how this plays out from the first scene. The questions then become who dies, how and in what order, and who will be the last survivor. It’s a well-acted film with a good cast, but a highly derivative, weak script. One of the biggest problems is that there’s no real explanation for why things go pear shaped. They never reveal why the paradox is causing all the deaths. Maybe it’s sentient? Who knows?
As far as tying it to the original Cloverfield, that’s not clear either. There is some exposition at the start of the film from a conspiracy theorist who claims that activating the particle accelerator with cause “demons” to be unleashed on the earth, so I guess we’re supposed to infer from that how the monster, or maybe monsters, appeared? Even so, the timeline doesn’t add up as the original film took place in then present day 2008. The ending is just as ambiguous as the endings to both the original film and the “spiritual successor”, 2016’s 10 Cloverfield Lane. As always, anything JJ Abrams does (he’s the producer) has to be a riddle wrapped in an enigma and soaked in “WTF”, and his shtick has become very old.
There’s another Cloverfield universe installment scheduled for this Fall, working title “Overlord”, which reportedly takes place in WWII, so I doubt any more answers about all these films are forthcoming.
Netflix paid $50 million for this film which so far has a RT score of 19%. This is an easy one to skip.
In the year 2028, a group of international scientists aboard the Cloverfield space station test the Shepherd, a particle accelerator that they hope will solve the world’s energy crisis. The test shunts them into an alternate dimension where strange things start happening. If you’ve seen any sci-fi movie in the past 40 years where there’s a group of people in space, underwater, the arctic, etc., you know exactly how this plays out from the first scene. The questions then become who dies, how and in what order, and who will be the last survivor. It’s a well-acted film with a good cast, but a highly derivative, weak script. One of the biggest problems is that there’s no real explanation for why things go pear shaped. They never reveal why the paradox is causing all the deaths. Maybe it’s sentient? Who knows?
As far as tying it to the original Cloverfield, that’s not clear either. There is some exposition at the start of the film from a conspiracy theorist who claims that activating the particle accelerator with cause “demons” to be unleashed on the earth, so I guess we’re supposed to infer from that how the monster, or maybe monsters, appeared? Even so, the timeline doesn’t add up as the original film took place in then present day 2008. The ending is just as ambiguous as the endings to both the original film and the “spiritual successor”, 2016’s 10 Cloverfield Lane. As always, anything JJ Abrams does (he’s the producer) has to be a riddle wrapped in an enigma and soaked in “WTF”, and his shtick has become very old.
There’s another Cloverfield universe installment scheduled for this Fall, working title “Overlord”, which reportedly takes place in WWII, so I doubt any more answers about all these films are forthcoming.
Netflix paid $50 million for this film which so far has a RT score of 19%. This is an easy one to skip.