sullydnl
Ross Kemp's caf ID
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2012
- Messages
- 34,748
To weigh in on the Cloverfield Paradox discussion, I thought it was hugely enjoyable. Not in the conventional way, of course. Or indeed in any of the ways they presumably intended. It was utterly terrible by any and all conventional standards. But it managed to be that very special kind of terrible that was both unaware of, and completely committed to it's own utter terribleness. Something which made its many frequent ridiculousnesses almost charming. In an amusingly terrible way.
One of my favourite aspects of it's almost endearing terribleness, is that it can't be pinned down or blamed on it's re-writing, or indeed on any one particular thing. The bits that were very clearly added in later to retcon it into the Cloverfield Universe were spectacularly terrible, sure. But they were no more or less terrible than some of the more terrible parts of the evidently original film. And even without plotting of near satirical terribleness, you'd still be left with dialogue that renders most of the characters at Prometheus levels of cinematic space job incompetence...
In a word. Terrible.
Highlights include.
A clearly added on subplot about the main character's husband rescuing a little girl from...somewhere?...that impressively managed to both ruin the entire suspenseful conceit of the main plot (by revealing both the status of the Earth and the existence of the monsters half way through the film) and go absolutely nowhere and achieve absolutely nothing as it's own thing.
The crew's doctor chickening out of performing an autopsy - the one and only doctory thing required of him (shout out to Prometheus! Wat Waaat!) and then doing absolutely nothing of any note for the entire rest of the film.
Chris O Dowd losing his arm in a comical slap stick scene
Chris O Dowd's disembodied arm coming back to life in comical a slap stick scene
Chris O Dowd's now sentient disembodied arm writing a message in pen that solves a crucial plot point in a comical slap stick scene
Anything involving Chris O Dowd's comical disembodied arm.
The bit where the entire plot is essentially explained by a cheap looking News Bulletin interview with a conspiracy theorist that they're all somehow watching on an International space station.
Anything involving Chris O Dowd's comical disembodied arm.
All of the dialogue.
WORMS!!
The bit at the end where Gugu (I've no idea what her character's name was) decides to stay in that dimension, but abandons her escape pod to stop Crazy Blonde Lady killing her crew, only to arrive after she's essentially already killed them all (at least to her knowledge) bet then decides to fight her to the death anyway, despite them both essentially having the same goal 5 minutes ago, and there being basically nothing left worth staying for anyway.
The English husband of the English lead listening to radio reports about the devastation of "Downtown" and "The Residential District"... Because 'places'.
I very much feel this is the kind of list I'll enjoy returning to.
I feel like Chris O' Dowd's arm deserves more mentions.