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This review contains minor spoilers forThe Cloverfield Paradox.
Solving the scientific problem ended up a relatively simple task, at least in this installment.
For the ongoing saga, there are still some colossal issues.
It was no big deal but it worked well enough.
It purports to explain why Bad Things Happened to Our Good Planet.
The Shepard, someone explains, will unlock an endless supply of power that can save us all.
ForThe Cloverfield Paradoxthey seem to have had few such experts and so consultedAstrophysics for Dummies.
(Single universe is, being uni-, redundant, but I didnt realize that until researching the multiverse.
You learn stuff in this job.)
None of this, however, is the main emotional thrust, which centers on old-fashioned, down-to-earth grief.
(You and I better get busy.)
Not all communication is so fluid.
Is she an alien?
All of those things will come back, some of them in exceptionally gross ways.
The Nigerian-born director Julius Onah is extremely skillful.
The screen is loaded with colorful sci-fi bric-a-brac but the frames are nonetheless spacious.
He knows how to keep the camera in motion without being a hot dog about it.
But then things come screeching to a halt.
No, thats exactly wrong.
The dunderheaded ending involves a character yelling, Dont come back!
as if people in a spaceship with limited power have anywhere else to go Mars?
The problem with retrofits is that they cant spiral off in entertaining new directions.
They have to come crashing back to Franchise-Land.
Next up: the surprise release of the sure-to-be-best-sellingThe Cloverfield Diet.
