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maltatoday SUNDAY 11 FEBRUARY 2018 42 This Week WHEN the Matt Reeves-directed, J.J. Abrams-produced Cloverfield first hit cinemas in 2008, there wasn't anything quite like it. An alien-invasion flick taking the Blair Witch Project route, it made for a fresh take on hackneyed material. One of the most worthwhile and enduring aspects of the whole en- deavour – penned by Drew God- dard – was that it gave audiences a more immediate, visceral feel of a genre traditionally only too fond of grandiose crane shots. This time, we were forced to look up at the devastation wrought by extra-ter- restrial invaders from the ground up, only catching fleeting glimpses of the creatures in question. The ingenuity of the concept ended up following through the franchise's narrative and market- ing campaign. When 10 Clover- field Lane was released last year, there was no mention of it form- ing part of the Cloverfield series until its official title was unveiled. Even then, anyone wandering into the film with no knowledge of its supposed predecessor would have been none the wiser – the film works perfectly as a taut drama in which a creepy conspiracy theo- rist (played by John Goodman) keeps two young people (Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Gallagher Jr) hostage in a bunker, supposedly for their own safety, convinced as he is that an invad- ing alien force has reduced the world into a hostile war zone. And now, another surprise entry in the series has popped up at the last minute – and it's accessible to all just a click away, on Netf- lix. Eschewing a cinematic release for what was originally meant to be a standalone film, Paramount Studios have decided to re-pur- pose the script for Oren Uziel's sci-fi thriller 'God Particle' into an entry to the loosely-connected Cloverfield franchise... and let it run free on the Netflix streaming platform. Sadly, however, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. And this meal feels like a last-minute bowl of student ramen reheated with improvised spices in the hopes that nobody would notice its taw- dry provenance. The year is 2028, and the Earth is suffering through a global en- ergy crisis. In a desperate effort to generate power, the earth's space agencies send a particle accelera- tor up into space, manned by the Cloverfield Station. Those opti- mistic about the project pin their hopes on its success generating infinite energy for everyone. Con- spiracy theorists, however, claim that such meddling could create the "Cloverfield Paradox", which would cause temporal and molec- ular rifts and even open portals to dangerous alien creatures. Captained by Kiel (David Oye- lowo), among the Cloverfield Sta- tion's international melting pot of a crew is Ava Hamilton (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who has left be- hind a loving husband, Michael (Roger Davies) on earth to pursue this make-it-or-break-it mission. But when one of the station's en- counters with the particle acceler- ator lumps the ship with a mysteri- ous guest, Mina Jensen (Elizabeth Debicki) who claims to have been aboard an earlier iteration of the same crew, things take a turn for the truly weird. Life-threateningly weird. While on one level, Cloverfield Paradox – directed by the Nige- rian-American filmmaker Julius Onah – works just fine as a pseu- do-Alien space-bound thriller, its lazy and unimaginative execution just screams lack of vision and wasted potential. It wastes an otherwise stellar and game cast – which also includes the likes of Chris O'Dowd and Daniel Bruhl – while also never quite managing to get the most out of what could have been an intriguingly knotted game of spa - tio-temporal paradoxes and sur- real, stomach-churning threats. A worm-infested corpse and a crawl- ing-and-writing severed hand feel both tame and nonsensical when compared to what we've seen be- fore in the same sub-genre. The verdict With an overqualified cast and riding the coattails of an inspired and successful franchise, it's a shame that Cloverfield Paradox does very little to live up to either the promise of its predecessors or the supposedly "bold" tactic of releasing it with very little fanfare by eschewing a conventional cin- ematic. Because as it turns out, this cliche-ridden mess was simply carted off to Netflix for reasons that should become blindingly obvious to anyone five minutes in. Still, there is something resem- bling a servicable B-movie grade sci-fi thriller in there. It's just a shame that it had to tarnish one of the more inspired genre franchises of the century so far. Those look- ing for a truly thrilling and the- matically rich space opera to sink their teeth into would be far bet- ter served by The Expanse. Hand- ily enough, it's also available to stream on Netflix... Cloverfield Paradox is currently streaming on Netflix IN CINEMAS TODAY Embassy Cinemas Valletta Tel. 21 227436, 21 245818 Fifty Shades Freed (18) 10:30, 13:55, 16:15, 18:40, 21:00 Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri (15) 20:50 Coco (PG) 10:25, 13:45, 16:05, 18:25 The Post (12A) 16:00, 18:30, 21:00 The Greatest Showman (PG) 10:20, 13:35, 15:55, 18:15, 20:45 Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (12A) 13:30, 16:05, 18:35, 21:10 Maze Runner: The Death Cure (12A) 10:20, 14:30, 17:45, 20:45 Valletta Living History (U) 10:00, 10:45, 11:30, 12:15, 13:00, 13:45, 14:30, 15:15 Eden Cinemas St Julian's Tel. 23 710400 All The Money In The World (15) 20:50, 23:35 Coco (PG) 11:35, 14:05, 16:20, 18:35 Darkest Hour (PG) 21:10 Den Of Thieves (15) 14:30, 17:40, 20:30, 23:20 Early Man (PG) 11:30, 14:20, 16:25, 18:35 Fifty Shades Freed (18) 14:20, 15:35, 17:50, 20:05, 21:15, 22:25 Insidious: The Last Key (15) 14:00, 18:35, 20:50 Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (12A) 11:50, 14:25, 18:05, 20:45 Maze Runner: The Death Cure (12A) 11:15, 14:25, 17:55, 20:55, 23:50 Tad The Lost Explorer And The Secret Of King Midas (U) 11:25, 14:15, 16:15, 18:20, 20:35 The Commuter (15) 14:15, 16:30, 18:50, 22:45 The Greatest Showman (PG) 11:25, 14:05, 16:20, 18:40, 21:00, 23:20 The Post (12A) 16:10, 20:35 Tosca (PG) 15:00 Empire Cinemas Bugibba Tel. 21 581787, 21 581909 The Greatest Showman (PG) 16:00, 21:00 Coco (PG) 11:05, 13:45, 18:30, 20:50 The Commuter (15) 11:00, 13:35, 16:00, 18:25, 20:45 Maze Runner: The Death Cure (3D) (12A) 11:00, 14:00, 18:15, 21:10 Den of Thieves (15) 11:05, 14:00, 18:15, 21:05 Early Man (PG) 11:15, 14:00, 16:30, 18:35 Tad the Lost Explorer and the Secret of King Midas (U) 11:45, 13:45, 16:30, 18:30, 20:40 Fifty Shades Freed (18) 10:45, 13:30, 16:00, 18:30, 21:00 The Golden Calf (PG) 10:15 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE ★ ★ ★ ★ CLOVERFIELD ★ ★ ★ ALIENS ★ ★ COVENANT ★ SPACE BALLS FILM By Teodor Reljic In space, no-one can hear you sputter into oblivion THE CLOVEFIELD PARADOX (16+) ★ ★ Resistance is futile: Gugu Mbatha-Raw in Cloverfield Paradox Need a hand? Julius Onah's film is a lukewarm retread