MINOR SPOILERS BELOW

From the beginning, ‘Cloverfield’ has been a franchise surrounded by mystery. The trailer for the first film didn’t even have a title attached. The second installment one came out of nowhere. And during the Super Bowl, the third installment released a 30-second teaser showing a small group of astronauts trying to escape an alternate universe and letting viewers know the film was dropping on Netflix in a mere few hours. So rightfully, avid fans were in for a surprise.

The first two movies had a good, captivating story. 2016’s ’10 Cloverfield Lane’ didn’t rely on stating it was in the same world as ‘Cloverfield’ (2008), and there’s some speculation if it even was. ‘The Cloverfield Paradox’ (2018), on the otherhand, reminded the audience it was…repeatedly, even calling the spaceship the main characters were on Cloverfield Station.

Originally titled ‘God Particle,’ this film was intended to  release sometime in October 2017, but it was pushed back indefinitely. Rumors circulated that Netflix was acquiring the rights to the finished product, therefore eliminating a theatrical release. So, that makes me think even the people in charge of distributing the project questioned how well it would do.

‘Paradox’ fails to deliver a straight-answer narrative. Mysterious things keep happening to the main characters aboard this spaceship, but yet there are little to no answers about how and why these events took place. Even though this franchise is meant to be filled with mystery, ‘Paradox’ pushed the boundaries of having too much ambiguity in it. At some point, you need to release you can’t keep your viewers constantly asking questions.

I can say I enjoyed the visual effects and the cinematography. This is a relatively well-shot film, especially when it shows exterior shots of the space station. For a film with the budget of $45 million, it’s not too terrible.

Overall, it’s disappointing a ‘Cloverfield’ project didn’t live up to expectations. While a fourth installment has been confirmed and rumored to be hitting theaters (or maybe Netflix?) in October later this year, hopefully the studio will be able to notice the mistakes from this entry and not apply them to the next.

‘The Cloverfield Paradox’ is currently streaming on Netflix.