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The Cloverfield Paradox crashes to Earth as Twitter grounds surprise space thriller

By Don Kaye

After nearly a year of speculation over when it would come out, The Cloverfield Paradox was given a surprise premiere on Sunday night (Feb. 4) by streaming giant Netflix immediately after the conclusion of the Super Bowl. The film's arrival -- an unexpected and genuinely bold move by the streaming giant -- came hard on the heels of rumors that Paramount Pictures, the studio behind the Cloverfield series so far, was cutting a deal to let Netflix have the picture after a long and troubled production history.

The Cloverfield Paradox was first announced by J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot production company way back in 2012 as God Particle, an original story about a particle accelerator experiment that goes disastrously wrong, wiping the Earth out of the sky and leaving the crew of an international space station stranded in orbit. The promising idea was coupled with a formidable cast -- led by David Oyelowo, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Daniel Bruhl and Chris O'Dowd -- and a first-time director named Julius Onah.

The movie was shot in 2016 and originally pegged for a 2017 release, but was bumped three times amidst rumors of extensive reshoots undertaken to connect the film to Cloverfield (2008) and 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016). Just two weeks ago the first word surfaced about the Paramount/Netflix deal, and just like that, the movie was available for all Netflix subscribers to see last night. So what's the verdict? Honestly, not so great: judging from reactions from viewers and critics on Twitter, The Cloverfield Paradox was hardly worth all the mystery and hype. See for yourself...

At last someone pointed this out:

Not everybody was unhappy with the movie:

Many responses seemed disappointed in their own disappointment:

Did you watch The Cloverfield Paradox last night? What did you think?