Set primarily on a space station in an unspecified near-future, a group of scientists are working to perfect a new power source that will solve a global energy crisis on the Earth below. Their mission has gone on four times as long as expected, and has been a long string of failures. But when they finally succeed in powering their device, it isn't good news. A series of inexplicable and horrific phenomena unfolds, and it becomes increasingly apparent they may have done something terrible that they can't undo.
The Cloverfield Paradox is a schizophrenic movie that doesn't seem to really know what it wants to be. I'm not talking about its place in the "franchise," such as that is; the now-established pattern says that each Cloverfield movie can jump to whatever subgenre of science fiction it wants. But this movie can't stick with one thing and do it well. It's apocalyptic fiction, but also monster horror. It packs psychological thrills, but then trades the desire to unsettle the audience with brief aspirations of making it cringe.
The problem with it being such a mess is that you can perceive in it a solid framework, a spine that runs through the narrative. At the core, this is the story of Ava Hamilton, an astronaut who we come to learn is compartmentalizing a personal tragedy in the hopes of averting a global one. The best parts of the movie -- moments that actually are good -- are grounded in Hamilton's torment, testing just how much she's willing to sacrifice. Her regrets are sometimes thrust front and center, and she's forced to ask if she'd make different choices, given the chance.
Some other tantalizing drama is playing at the margins too. As the story unfolds, the astronauts aboard this Cloverfield Station are made to question the very nature of reality. They question each other, and even themselves, as paranoia sets in. This material generally could have used a bit of a polish, but it too has its moments.
Unfortunately, there's also a ton of nonsensical bullshit grafted onto the good stuff. The film offers up a reason why all this random weird stuff is happening, but it's hardly an explanation. Instead, it's a flimsy excuse to say that apparently anything can happen, and so we get loads of illogical Event Horizon type silliness. B does not follow A in this story, and it seems that any random one-off horror set piece someone could think up was welcomed into the script with open arms. Also welcome was every sci-fi movie cliché about ticking clocks and noble deaths. All of this completely overwhelms anything good at the story's core.
Competing with both the nonsense and the substance is a wholly unnecessary subplot set back on Earth. Even though all the dramatic tension is clearly on the station generally and Hamilton in particular, the movie finds it necessary to track what's happening to Hamilton's husband on the planet. It doesn't reflect on the drama or echo what's important; it's 10 to 15 minutes of time wasted trying to force this movie into a much narrower concept of what the Cloverfield franchise is (or should be).
Perhaps most disappointing of all is that a really talented cast is being squandered here. Starring as Hamilton, Gugu Mbatha-Raw constantly brought me back from the brink of truly hating this movie. Whenever the story really tracked that character and gave Raw something human to play, she hit a home run, every time. Chris O'Dowd is really funny as comic relief the movie doesn't quite know how to deploy correctly. David Oyelowo plays the mission commander, striving to bring all the gravitas and charisma to this fictional leader that he brought to playing Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma (which is to say, a lot more than this script deserves). Daniel Brühl and Elizabeth Debicki stand out in moments too, working hard to imbue the story with subtext that really should have been "text."
About one-third of this movie actually feels really good, a tantalizing hint of what might have been. So.... what's one-third of a good grade? A C-, perhaps? A shame, for sure. 10 Cloverfield Lane, this is not.
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