Netflix’s Ambitious Sci-Fi Horror Set On A Space Station Has One Of Its Best Casts

Netflix has an interesting catalog of sci-fi movies, among them a sci-fi horror one set on a space station, which has one of the best casts. While Netflix is still known for its licensed content of TV shows and movies, it now stands out for its original content. When it comes to movies, Netflix now has some titles ranking among the best movies of all time, and it has covered a variety of genres, ensuring there’s something for viewers of different ages and with different tastes.

On the branch of sci-fi, Netflix has brought movies like Leave the World Behind, Don’t Look Up, and It’s What’s Inside, the latter a blend with horror. Also falling into the latter category is The Cloverfield Paradox, the third installment in the Cloverfield franchise and the only one (so far) to be released directly on Netflix. The Cloverfield Paradox has one of the best casts in the franchise, counting on the talents of Daniel Brühl, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Elizabeth Debicki, David Oyelowo, and Chris O’Dowd.

Despite its strong cast, The Cloverfield Paradox couldn’t match the critical success of its predecessors. While the performances of the cast were praised and are widely regarded as the movie’s real strength, The Cloverfield Paradox is the lowest-rated movie in the Cloverfield franchise, but it must be noted that it stood out from the rest in one huge and brilliant way: its release strategy, which further cemented the franchise’s legacy of incredible marketing plans.

The Cloverfield Paradox’s Release Strategy Was Admirably Ambitious

The Cloverfield franchise kicked off in 2008 with Cloverfield, and was followed by 10 Cloverfield Lane in 2016, though it’s not a sequel. Cloverfield was a hit not just thanks to its concept, story, found footage style, and mythology, but thanks to its marketing campaign, too. Cloverfield built curiosity and anticipation through keeping details a secret, including the movie’s title in its first teasers.

This generated a lot of conversation online as many tried to figure out what the movie was about and what the few known details could mean. Luckily, Cloverfield lived up to the expectations it built, and this intense secrecy continued in the marketing strategies for the following movies. However, The Cloverfield Paradox had a notable strategy, a lot more ambitious than the previous movies and very effective, even if the movie didn’t live up to expectations.

Before its title was officially revealed, The Cloverfield Paradox was believed to be part of the franchise, and it was finally confirmed to be so after production had wrapped. However, The Cloverfield Paradox went through various delays to give post-production more time, as unlike the previous movies, it had a much bigger production as it’s set on a space station. While the world continued to speculate on its title and release date, Netflix surprised everyone with a trailer during Super Bowl LII.

Even more surprising was the announcement that the movie would be released on Netflix immediately after the game, which not only took viewers by surprise but also the cast. Oyelowo shared during a Q&A session (via The Verge) that they didn’t know about the movie’s release until the day of the Super Bowl during a morning conference call.

The Cloverfield Paradox was unprecedented yet fitting with the franchise’s marketing style, further adding to its legacy of brilliant marketing strategies and admirable levels of secrecy. Leaving aside whether the movie worked or not, it can’t be denied that The Cloverfield Paradox brilliantly used the anticipation and curiosity around it and seized the Super Bowl audience to reach a larger number of viewers, and it stands as the franchise’s most ambitious move.

The Cloverfield Paradox Should Have Been A Standalone Movie

The Cloverfield Paradox mostly failed as a Cloverfield movie. One of the most criticized elements of the movie is how forced it felt to fit the world of Cloverfield, resulting in a messy and poorly written story, with an inconsistent tone, and a lack of mystery, which was a big part of why the previous movies were so good and intriguing.

This was, in large part, due to The Cloverfield Paradox originally being a movie completely unrelated to the Cloverfield franchise. The movie was originally titled God Particle, written by Oren Uziel, and with Julius Onah already on board to direct. It wasn’t until the script was picked up by Bad Robot that it was reworked to fit the Cloverfield universe, with Abrams planning it to be a spiritual sequel to the first movie (via The Independent).

Ultimately, The Cloverfield Paradox didn’t really work as a spiritual sequel to Cloverfield, and its franchise elements ended up creating many plot holes that have yet to be solved. The Cloverfield Paradox would have worked better as God Particle, a sci-fi movie about the struggles of the crew of a space station who, after an incident at the station, find that Earth has gone missing.

What should have elevated The Cloverfield Paradox and made it part of one of the most popular sci-fi worlds, as well as an entry that added to it, ended up making it the franchise’s weakest and messiest entry. At the time of writing, a new Cloverfield movie is reportedly in development, though it has been trapped in development for years, and it’s unclear when or if it will ever be made and released.

Source: The Verge, The Independent.

Release Date

February 4, 2018

Runtime

102 Minutes

Director

Julius Onah

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