Nothing exemplifies the B movie nature of The Cloverfield Paradox than a poorly choreographed moment at the 42-minute mark. Here, after suspecting him of sabotage, the commander of the Cloverfield Station mission, Kiel (David Oyelowo), sucker punches German scientist Ernst Schmidt (Daniel Brühl) in a scene where the latter starts falling noticeably well before he is struck! I am sure director Julius Onah could have done another take but he may have had other things on his mind, such as the film’s uneven script by new screenwriter Oren Uziel.

Interestingly enough, The Cloverfield Paradox didn’t begin as a Cloverfield film at all, though this is quite obvious when you watch the film. Based on a speculative script by Uziel called God Particle, the film began production with Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot Productions as a low-budget sci-fi horror film that takes place largely on a space station, heavily inspired by properties such as Alien, Event Horizon and The Twilight Zone.

At some point, J.J. Abrams, who was attached to the project as a producer and leads Bad Robot had a horrible … err … bright idea to make God Particle a part of the Cloverfield franchise. I don’t know how late into the production of God Particle did Abrams have this epiphany, but going by the final cut I suspect it was late. Either that or Bad Robot simply didn’t care enough to do anything more than shoehorn Cloverfield elements into the film. I say this because all the references to the Cloverfield franchise in The Cloverfield Paradox seem to have been shot later and then edited into a film that largely takes place on a space station. What’s more, these other scenes feel at odds with the rest of the film tonally. I felt this strange disconnect as I watched the film, and only later learned that J. J. Abrams decided that with a few added scenes, God Particle would make an excellent link between Cloverfield (2008) and 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016). This has worked well for the franchise before when The Cellar was modified into the excellent 10 Cloverfield Lane. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work as seamlessly this time.

The Cloverfield Paradox is a mediocre film whose problems stem from the franchise-specific scenes clumsily stitched into the story

Most of the film’s problems do stem from franchise-specific scenes clumsily stitched into the film. For instance, in the opening scenes the science of the film is conveyed through scenes so heavy on exposition and lacking in such subtlety that they easily foreshadow the meat of the film. When the Cloverfield Station (which is experimenting with a particle accelerator in order to try and resolve an energy crisis that is close to fueling a global war) runs into an accident that had been only moments earlier been foreshadowed, we are left with a suspenseful situation with all sorts of extraordinary events. These include a crew member whose insides are crawling with insects, a moving arm like the one in Evil Dead 2, a new crew member who has appeared screaming with pipes and plastics piercing her body, and more.

These set pieces are mildly entertaining with some value in dark humour, but lack any suspense whatsoever because the mystery had been given away in the beginning of the film. Instead, we watch as the crew spend two-thirds of the 102-minute runtime perplexed as to what is happening while we are banging our heads on our keyboards wondering why scientists in these kinds of films are portrayed as so dumb.

It’s a shame that The Cloverfield Paradox is such a mediocre film because there is a very good performance here. The lead Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Ava Hamilton) stands out in a moving turn as a guilt-ridden mother who is reliving her worst nightmare. The performance is so good that it almost feels out of place, like unexpectedly finding a rose growing in a yard full of manure.

Rated PG-13 for violence

Published in Dawn, ICON, February 18th, 2018