Review of The Cloverfield Paradox (2018) by Elliot S — 01 Mar 2018

A misleadingly horror-heavy preview gives way to a so-so sci-fi actioner that hits way too many familiar beats, and leaves way too much unanswered. It can't be overstated how quickly this movie shifts away from "Event Horizon" style horror (promises of "demons" breaking in from another dimension) and switches to a Star Trek premise (ethical dilemmas over which altvernate dimension gets to have the short end of the resource stick).

This shift in genre storytelling completely derails the suspense. Even the most compelling piece of body horror from the preview (a sentient disembodied arm) gets played primarily for laughs. It became clear that the screenwriters didn't bother to know enough about their subject matter (quantum entanglement theories, hadron colliders as energy producers, space station mechanics) to make even the junk science feel palatable or sensical.