So, the original Cloverfield was fun enough. It was an interesting take on the disaster film, mashing it up with the found-footage genre. The second movie was also decently fun; John Goodman! Can this one hold up to those two *decent* films?
Not quite. Some stuff to like, but diminishing returns here.
THE BLURB:
Orbiting above an Earth on the brink of catastrophic energy wars, scientists test a dangerous device that could provide unlimited power but also runs the risk of creating a terrifying paradox, leaving them face-to-face with a dark alternate reality.
WHAT WORKED:
You know, the concept is somewhat interesting. I guess. It’s definitely fertile horror-scifi ground. Well-trodden, perhaps, but fertile. They also manage to collect a number of fun actors, my favorite being Chris O’Dowd. And it looked good! Especially coming off watching the last film on my list, 400 Days. The sets are fun. The effects are decent. The detached O’Dowd arm was really fun. The missing key component for their mysterious and powerful power source was a cool design. Finding a crewmember inside a bulkhead was awesome.
I was into the movie for most of it, to be honest. It delivers some thrills and a couple twists and turns. It’s just never inspired, surprising, or really anything that we haven’t seen before and done better.
WHAT DIDN’T WORK:
The main flaw of this movie…is that it has NOTHING to do with the Cloverfield universe. Nooottthhiiinnngggg.
I looked it up: this was a standalone script that JJ Abrams shoe-horned into the Cloverfield brand, and oh how shoe-horned it is. Worse than that, HOW they incorporate it is the weakest part of the narrative, and a terrible story choice:
We keep cutting back to this character’s husband down on earth, dealing with trying to save some kid after an apocalyptic Cloverfield-event…and it is soooo freaking boring. It doesn’t match the stuff going on up in the space station.
The script is also weak. I mean, you have Chris O’Dowd for god sake. How can you not utilize a talent like that and at least make this movie funny. It underutilizes the talent.
At the end of the day, the movie is watchable. It’s easily the weakest of the series, of which the other two weren’t even that great, to be honest. The only reason I really watched it was because it was free on Netflix.
5 out of 10 – competent, but forgettable