The Cloverfield Paradox

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law
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The Cloverfield Paradox

Post by law »

It seems to be generally disliked. I think it's maybe some of the best sci-fi horror schlock I've ever watched, and I'm already looking forward to returning to it occasionally--which is something I almost never do. I'd have been disappointed if I had paid to watch this in a theatre, but for the $0 it cost, I'm surprised people are being this hard on it. It's a 7 or so out of 10 for me--exactly where a good B-movie belongs. And I'm a harsh critic! I'm usually the harshest critic in the room! Which is why I'm so confused about the internet's response.

What did you think of it? If you hated it, help me understand what about it bothered you so fucking much.
Last edited by law on Tue Feb 06, 2018 12:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Stewball
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Re: The Cloverfield Paradox

Post by Stewball »

Being "schlock" already has it in the bottom 10%, but horror schlock puts it into negative territory.

hellboy76
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Re: The Cloverfield Paradox

Post by hellboy76 »

The vitriol seems to be originating mostly from online and the anger that the Cloverfield pieces were slapped onto a movie that was not a Cloverfield film, then market stunted down everyone's throats during the Super Bowl. I thought it was pretty mediocre as a film apart from Chris O'Dowd, but it's definitely not some shitstorm of awful. If you're going to line up how you like a movie based on the ethics and morals of production companies, you're gonna have a bad time.

Mentaculus
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Re: The Cloverfield Paradox

Post by Mentaculus »

hellboy76 wrote:The vitriol seems to be originating mostly from online and the anger that the Cloverfield pieces were slapped onto a movie that was not a Cloverfield film, then market stunted down everyone's throats during the Super Bowl. I thought it was pretty mediocre as a film apart from Chris O'Dowd, but it's definitely not some shitstorm of awful. If you're going to line up how you like a movie based on the ethics and morals of production companies, you're gonna have a bad time.


Image

^^Hey I sometimes like crappy genre film. I'm seeing it now, and double-featuring it with Bright.

hellboy76
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Re: The Cloverfield Paradox

Post by hellboy76 »

Mentaculus wrote:
hellboy76 wrote:The vitriol seems to be originating mostly from online and the anger that the Cloverfield pieces were slapped onto a movie that was not a Cloverfield film, then market stunted down everyone's throats during the Super Bowl. I thought it was pretty mediocre as a film apart from Chris O'Dowd, but it's definitely not some shitstorm of awful. If you're going to line up how you like a movie based on the ethics and morals of production companies, you're gonna have a bad time.


Image

^^Hey I sometimes like crappy genre film. I'm seeing it now, and double-featuring it with Bright.


Exactly. Watch it on its own merits and if you hate it, so be it. Myself, I am easily entertained and I kinda liked Bright as well. Both are kinda dumb, but in my experience, almost every movie has some sort of redeeming value somewhere, even if it's unintentional hilarity or inspired hate. Anger is an Energy as Public Image Ltd. liked to say repeatedly.

rklenseth
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Re: The Cloverfield Paradox

Post by rklenseth »

These movies ("10 Cloverfield Lane" and "The Cloverfield Paradox") are essentially shelved movies that JJ Abrams' Bad Robot is saving by adding them to their Cloverfield franchise. "10 Cloverfield Lane", which was originally titled the "The Cellar", was shelved by the studio after they thought it was too similar to "Room" (2015). Bad Robot acquired the script and had it rewritten to fit into their Cloverfield universe. "The Cloverfield Paradox", which was originally titled "God Particle", was already made but got shelved by the studio after poor test audience scores and competition from "Life" (2017) and "The Passengers" (2016). Bad Robot convinced Paramount to let them re-write and re-shoot it to fit into the Cloverfield universe as well but even after that Paramount still thought it a lost cause (apparently the nail in the coffin was "Life" doing poorly in theaters) and decided to take an offer from Netflix to buy the streaming rights which was for about 20 million more (or so I've heard tell) than the production budget of the movie and Paramount still retains the rights to all other distribution (ie. theater, home video, rental).

There are two things I do find interesting about all this. The first is Bad Robot saving movies that otherwise wouldn't see the light of day or at least get quietly released for rental and home video and then quietly forgotten by taking them and essentially placing them into its Cloverfield universe. The second is the deal with Netflix that lets Paramount make a guaranteed profit on a movie that probably would have been a gamble otherwise if released through the regular methods. I wonder if this will become a regular thing now with Netflix or other streaming giants with the studios. The streaming sites get to pad out their content and the studios make money on projects that otherwise would probably lose them money. It could end up being a saving grace for many a troubled project.

I personally liked "The Cloverfield Paradox" as a standalone sci-fi space survival thriller. It is a little slow and silly at points which hurts the pacing but I thought the bad parts of the movie were those that were obviously tacked on to fit it into the Cloverfield universe.

hellboy76
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Re: The Cloverfield Paradox

Post by hellboy76 »

rklenseth wrote:These movies ("10 Cloverfield Lane" and "The Cloverfield Paradox") are essentially shelved movies that JJ Abrams' Bad Robot is saving by adding them to their Cloverfield franchise. "10 Cloverfield Lane", which was originally titled the "The Cellar", was shelved by the studio after they thought it was too similar to "Room" (2015). Bad Robot acquired the script and had it rewritten to fit into their Cloverfield universe. "The Cloverfield Paradox", which was originally titled "God Particle", was already made but got shelved by the studio after poor test audience scores and competition from "Life" (2017) and "The Passengers" (2016). Bad Robot convinced Paramount to let them re-write and re-shoot it to fit into the Cloverfield universe as well but even after that Paramount still thought it a lost cause (apparently the nail in the coffin was "Life" doing poorly in theaters) and decided to take an offer from Netflix to buy the streaming rights which was for about 20 million more (or so I've heard tell) than the production budget of the movie and Paramount still retains the rights to all other distribution (ie. theater, home video, rental).

There are two things I do find interesting about all this. The first is Bad Robot saving movies that otherwise wouldn't see the light of day or at least get quietly released for rental and home video and then quietly forgotten by taking them and essentially placing them into its Cloverfield universe. The second is the deal with Netflix that lets Paramount make a guaranteed profit on a movie that probably would have been a gamble otherwise if released through the regular methods. I wonder if this will become a regular thing now with Netflix or other streaming giants with the studios. The streaming sites get to pad out their content and the studios make money on projects that otherwise would probably lose them money. It could end up being a saving grace for many a troubled project.

I personally liked "The Cloverfield Paradox" as a standalone sci-fi space survival thriller. It is a little slow and silly at points which hurts the pacing but I thought the bad parts of the movie were those that were obviously tacked on to fit it into the Cloverfield universe.


Well, I am glad they did then because I quite enjoyed 10 Cloverfield Lane.

BeautyBliss
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Re: The Cloverfield Paradox

Post by BeautyBliss »

Bad acting. The attempted character development is laughable. The plot devices make no sense whatsoever, and no attempt is made to make them make sense. Essentially, there is nothing to like. But for me the kicker is the anti-science message. Science will not destroy the world, it will save it. Any movie/person/thing suggesting otherwise is pretty much on my shit list.

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