Rank: Top Ten Most Clicked Pics

No Pacific Rim Uprising Yet….

But I do still plan to see the film as soon as possible.  While I’m waiting for a chance to see the film (and review it), I thought that it would be interesting to take a look at the ten most clicked photos from my blog since I first started posting over four years ago!  I’ll give a brief comment for each photo and I’ve also included five honorable mentions that just missed the cut.  I hope you enjoy!

#1–Star Trek Continues Wallpaper

It’s no surprise that a Star Trek Continues wallpaper is my most clicked image.  All but one of my most viewed posts has something to do with STC.  It’s one of my favorite shows and it always will be.

#2–The Discount Dark Knight and Jinx (Curry Time Cosplay)

I’m absolutely, one hundred percent, tee totally sure that the reason that this is my second most viewed photo is because my alter ego, DDK, is in the photo.  It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the very lovely Curry Time Cosplay is in this photo…at….all.

In all honesty, this is just one of multiple photos from my post that highlighted a wonderful weekend at CoastCon in Biloxi, MS.  It’s my second most viewed post of all time, and this photo can attest to that!

#3–Another STC photo

Featuring four of the lovely ladies that were part of the STC crew, it’s no shocker that this photo was my third most clicked pic! (L to R: Kim Stinger, Kipleigh Brown, Michele Specht, and Cat Roberts).

#4–CoastCon Strikes Again!!!

DDK took a ton of photos at CoastCon a few years ago and once again, he’s pretty sure that the reason that everybody clicked on this photo is because he’s in it.  It has absolutely nothing to do with the lovely Wonder Woman cosplayer in the photo.  Oh, and if anyone knows her, let me know so that I can list her name and/or cosplay page if she has one.

#5–Jinkies!  CoastCon is dominating this list!

Velma never looked better than she did here at CoastCon.  If you know who this person is, let me know so that I can give her credit.  Based on the number of clicks on the photo, she was a hit with my readers.

#6–The Amorettes

Truth be told, I could have made a list entirely of photos of the Amorettes.  All of their photos that I have featured have been clicked multiple times, but this one surged into sixth place on my list.

#7–HaberPhoto

Todd Haberkorn has a lot of fans, so it’s not a big surprise to see that my photo that I took with him a couple of years ago made my Top Ten list.  Between his massive anime following and his loyal Star Trek Continues fans, it’s no wonder that plenty of people have clicked this pic….or because I’m in it.

#8–Mechacon’s Mascots, Jett & Zee

I’ve taken plenty of photos with Jett & Zee over the years, but this particular photo, taken at CyPhaCon a few years ago, obviously impressed my readers.  It zooms in at number eight on my list.

#9–You can’t keep CoastCon down!

CoastCon is back on the list in the nine hole with this photo of myself, Awkward Cosplay Girl and another wonderful cosplayer that I don’t have a name for at the moment.  Let me know who she is and I’ll give her full credit.

#10–Surprise, Surprise: CoastCon closes out the Top Ten

My good friend, Nick Foreman, better known as Toad Sage Cosplay, rounds out the Top Ten with yet another CoastCon photo.  Here he is as the good Doctor from Doctor Who, (#7 to be exact).  That means that five out of ten of my top photos come from my second most viewed post.

CoastCon obviously has some loyal fans….or they like to click on photos of me with lovely ladies, Scooby-Doo lady friends, or the Doctor!

Here are my next five honorable mentions in order by the number of views:

1-Me with the very lovely and extremely cool, Michele Specht, from Star Trek Continues.

2-Bryce Dallas Howard, probably because of her hair.

3-CoastCon still going strong with Lego Wonder Woman.

4-My favorite group of green ladies, Orion’s Envy, and myself.

5-The dashingly handsome Chris Doohan from Star Trek Continues.

I hope that you enjoyed this little break from my standard posts.  I plan on making a few more lists in the near future.  Thanks for reading!!!

 

Stuff And Thangs

It’s Almost Here!

In my last post, I mentioned that I was going to apply for a press pass for CyPhaCon in Lake Charles, LA.  I did so on that very same day and I am happy to say that I was approved!

If you are attending CyPhaCon, let me know in the comments!  I want to meet as many of my loyal readers as possible and hang out with you for a bit.  Heck, you might even get the opportunity to have your lovely face plastered on my blog!  My main mission at CyPhaCon will be to meet Gigi Edgley and thank her for her work on Farscape and Star Trek Continues.  I also want to see the Suzaku 7 perform again.

Tunes

I’ve been listening to the Justice League soundtrack and the Black Panther score a lot lately.  I keep them on a steady rotation in my vehicle.  Also in that rotation are some classic KISS tunes and the wonderful sounds of The Amorettes.

Speaking of The Amorettes, they have a new album coming out in the very near future.  I’ve already pre-ordered my signed copy of the album.  Visit their Facebook page to find a link to order your own copy or visit their webpage for other music, merchandise, photos, and more!  I don’t get any type of profit for mentioning these young ladies and their band.  I just really love their music.  I first listened to their Game On album and then pledged allegiance to them for their  White Hot Heat album.  I got a signed copy and a sweet t-shirt for my loyalty.  I see these ladies on the rise, and hopefully they will make it stateside so that I can see them live and (hopefully) meet them.  If they (or any of their acquaintances) happen to be reading this post, drop me a comment or message me.  It would be really cool to interview the band!

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Jaegers and Kaiju and Finn, Oh My!!!

In other news, I’m pretty hyped about the theatrical release of Pacific Rim Uprising.  I plan on seeing it on Sunday and plan to have a review posted within the very near future.  I’ve enjoyed John Boyega in the Star Wars films and absolutely loved the first Pacific Rim film.  I’m a bit disappointed that Guillermo del Toro isn’t heading up this film, but the Jaegers and Kaiju are back and that’s reason enough for me to see this film.

The Final Frontier

I’m also very excited about going on a field trip to Johnson Space Center with my son and his classmates.  I’ve been to JSC before, but it was many years ago.  I’m sure that things have advanced quite a bit since I last visited, so it should be a fun journey.  It will also be cool to see NASA through the eyes of my young son and his friends.

Last But Not Least

It’s still a few months away, but it’s never too early to start planning for the Texas Renaissance Festival.  I missed last year’s festival due to some personal things, but this year I plan on making up for it.  Although my one of my favorite Rennie bands, Circa Paleo, seems to be on an extended hiatus (and an understandable one due to the loss of a member), my hopes are high that my other favorite Rennie band, Wine And Alchemy, will perform at the festival this year.

In Closing

As always, I want to thank each and every one of you for taking time out of your day to read my thoughts and ramblings.  If you are attending CyPhaCon or the Texas Renaissance Festival later this year, let me know and maybe we can hang out.  If you see Pacific Rim Uprising this weekend, be sure to watch for my review and let me know what you think about the film!  Oh, and I really do suggest that you all check out The Amorettes if you love hard rock.  They deserve any and all recognition that they get now and in the future.

So long for now, people.  I hope to see many of you very soon!

Blu Ray Releases, CoastCon, and Me!

It’s A Wonderful Time To Be A Geek!

March is gearing up to be a majorly geeky month!  Black Panther is still dominating the box office (see my review of the film here).  The Shape of Water was nominated for thirteen awards at the 90th Academy Awards (wins included Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Music Score, and Best Production Design).  Images and video from the upcoming Shazam! film have been leaked.  CoastCon is coming up this weekend.  New comics are releasing, new Blu Ray releases are on the way……whew!

At the end of this month, the much loved, hated, and discussed Star Wars: The Last Jedi will be released on Blu Ray and DVD (3/27, available now as a digital download).  Justice League was released yesterday and Thor: Ragnarok has been available in stores since last Tuesday.  Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle is also coming out this month.

Of all of these releases, the one that I am most interested in is Jumanji.  Why?  Because it’s the only film in the bunch that I haven’t seen yet.  Thor underwhelmed me to no end.  You can read my thoughts on it here.  I enjoyed Justice League a lot more than most people did and posted my thoughts on it as well.  The Last Jedi was okay,  in my opinion.  There were definitely some bad choices made with the film, but overall it was a decent addition to the Star Wars legacy.

I do plan on picking up the Target release of Justice League, primarily due to the fact that it comes in a book and not with a bunch of gimmicky pins like the Walmart release does.  I’m usually a sucker for steelbook versions like Best Buy releases, but the Target version offers more content in my opinion.

Set photos and a video have been leaked from the new Shazam! film that will be released next year.  I love the fact that the costume is comic accurate for the Big Red Cheese.  Hopefully Zachary Levi can pull off the character.  I’ve read a lot about how people dislike that the costume appears to be padded.  The end result might be different, so I’m holding out hope that it will be done well for the film.  Mark Strong will portray Dr. Sivana, one of Shazam’s biggest baddies.

In other geeky good news, CoastCon will be celebrating the big Four One this weekend in beautiful Biloxi, MS.  This year’s guests include Bryce Papenbrook, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Damon Bowie, Kimberly Richardson, K.D. Wood, Preston Acevedo, Jessica Cox, Kathy Beauford, and many, many more wonderful people.  The Suzaku 7 will be providing some sweet and nerdy tunes as well.  Be sure to attend this great event if you have the chance!

Sadly, I won’t be able to attend CoastCon this year.  It truly hurts my heart to miss this event as it is often the only time of year that I get to see many of my friends from Mississippi and southeastern Louisiana.  Geek culture is a lot bigger and stronger than you might think along the Gulf Coast, and the success of conventions such as CoastCon are proof of that!

Thanks for reading my post.  March is gearing up to be one of the best geeky months of the year.  Hopefully the nerdy love train will keep rolling through the rest of 2018.  I’ll be attending CyPhaCon next month.  I’m going to apply for a press badge.  If approved, it will be the first pop culture event that I’ve ever attended as an official member of the press.  I’ve attended as a regular attendee, a special guest, as part of another convention, and as a member of a fan group over the years, but attending as a member of the press would be a first!

Hopefully I’ll see some of you on the convention circuit soon!

 

 

 

Ruling Over The Next MCU Phase

Wakanda

As Marvel begins to dig deeper into their vault of heroes to make new films, the major players such as Captain America, Spider-Man, Hulk, and Thor are taking a step back so that lesser known heroes such as Doctor Strange, Ant-Man, and Captain Marvel can take the spotlight.  Marvel did the exact same thing in 2008 with Iron Man.  Although comic fans knew him, Tony Stark wasn’t necessarily a huge character outside of the printed page.  Marvel gambled on the character but did so with a great story that set up the Marvel Cinematic Universe and now you can’t throw a rock without hitting some type of merchandise featuring Iron Man front and center.

In Walks The Black Panther

Marvel is doing the same thing with Black Panther.  This time, however, they are doing it to keep an established franchise fresh and to usher in the next phase of the MCU, a phase that won’t feature tried and true heroes like Captain America and Iron Man.  This phase will need a stand out hero, one that will keep the franchise alive and to explore new tales, and Black Panther is a perfect fit for this role.

Let’s be completely honest here.  I’m betting that the bulk of the MCU viewing audience was completely unaware that a character named T’Challa even existed before Captain America: Civil War was released.  While comic book reading fans of Black Panther have known about the him since his arrival in the mid 1960’s, most moviegoers are only learning of him now, just as most of them only recently discovered characters such as Star Lord, Winter Soldier, Yellow Jacket, and Groot.

Introduced in Captain America: Civil War, we were only given a taste of Black Panther.  His solo film was given to us in order to add depth to his character.  It did that, but not without its problems.

Spoiler Free Review

Black Panther is an epic film, make no mistake.  Quite possibly the most heavily researched film in all of the MCU, it embraced T’Challa’s African homeland and celebrated the culture of the continent through costume, dance, cinematography, and music.  This attention to detail shines throughout the movie and lifts it high above its somewhat standard MCU plot.

The film takes place primarily in Wakanda, with a couple of visits to Oakland, CA and Busan, South Korea.  In the movie, T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) has become king of Wakanda following his father’s death in Civil War and all of the Wakandan tribes accept him as their king with the exception of one, the Jabari tribe, who live in the mountains apart from the rest of the tribes.  Their leader, the heavily underused M’Baku (Winston Duke), challenges T’Challa to ritual combat for the crown and fails.

Meanwhile, a young man named Erik Stevens (Michael B. Jordan) teams up with Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis) to steal a Wakandan artifact from a museum.  When the Wakandans hear of this, the tribal leaders ask their newly crowned king to capture Klaue and bring him to justice (He had been a thorn in the side of the Wakandans for a long time, but I’m not going to give up too much information in this part of the review).

What follows is one of the greatest action sequences in the film.  After a CIA sting goes sideways in a Busan casino, Black Panther, his tribal general named Okoye (the amazing Danai Gurira), and his former lover and spy, Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), chase after Klaue through the streets of Busan.  They manage to catch him and meet up with CIA agent Everett Ross (Martin Freeman).  Klaue manages to escape with help from Erik Stevens, injuring Ross during the escape.  This forces T’Challa to bring Ross back to Wakanda to heal him, threatening to reveal the secrets of Wakanda (including Vibranium), which is actually the most technologically advanced country on the planet.

Ultimately it is revealed that Erik Stevens is T’Challa’s cousin, whose real name is N’Jadaka, and he goes by the name Killmonger, a moniker given to him during his time as a black ops soldier.  He believes that Wakanda has abandoned the people of Africa and all people of African descent outside of their hidden country, idly sitting by and allowing them to become the poor and downtrodden of the world.  He wants to take Wakanda’s technology and give it to those people so that they can overthrow the ruling classes in every country and thus, take over the world.  T’Challa believes that this will bring only more pain and war to the world, and plans to stop N’Jadaka.

T’Challa is defeated by N’Jadaka in ritual combat, and N’Jadaka sets out to deliver weapons throughout the world.  Luckily, T’Challa is saved by the Jabari tribe and he leads a great battle against N’Jadaka.  Does he succeed?  You’ll have to watch the film to find out.

Overall, this film is excellent.  As stated before, Africa’s many unique cultures are celebrated through the film’s cinematography, costuming, dancing, and music.  This was definitely a labor of love for director Ryan Coogler, as you could see that he spent a ton of time making sure that the film flowed at an excellent pace as an action yarn but still managed to highlight Africa at every turn.

All of the cast did an excellent job in the film.  Danai Gurira stood out as Okoye, as did Winston Duke as M’Baku.  Daniel Kaluuya was solid as W’Kabi, but he didn’t have a very large role in the film.  Screen legends Angela Bassett and Forest Whitaker shined as Ramonda, T’Challa’s mother, and Zuri, the Wakandan spiritual leader responsible for tending to the heart-shaped herb that gives Black Panther his powers.

The biggest standout in the film was Letitia Wright as Shuri, T’Challa’s youthful sister who oversees all of the technological research and development for Wakanda.  Wright energized every scene she was in whether it was a comedic shot or a serious part of the film.  She provided humor in an otherwise very serious film.

As excellent as the film was as a whole, it still suffered some of the same weaknesses that seem to be standard for Marvel films.  As cool as Erik Killmonger looked in the film, he just didn’t impress me at all.  Michael B. Jordan didn’t come across as a seasoned war veteran hellbent on taking over the world.  Instead, he was more of street punk who just happened to end up in Wakanda and managed to take over the place.  The motivation for his actions was definitely there, perhaps more so than any other villain in the MCU excepting Vulture, but Jordan just seemed a little flat in his delivery.

Another shortcoming of the film is that despite the potential for an epic tale, it just seemed like another generic adventure for a hero.  Bad guy shows up, takes over, threatens everyone, has to fight the hero.  Nothing really stood out from all of the rest of Marvel’s superhero films.

The musical score was brilliant.  No, check that, beyond brilliant.  Ludwig Goransson went above and beyond in order to capture the rich sounds of Africa and expertly weaved them into his score.  I could write an entire post on his work alone, but just know that it is awesome.

Black Panther has set the tone for the future of the MCU.  Gone is the silliness of Thor: Ragnarok and the forced humor of Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2.  Seriousness has returned and an atmosphere of real danger has been created with this film.  T’Challa has the MCU squarely on his shoulders, and I’m sure that he will carry it successfully.

Hail to the king.

Spoilers Below!!! You’ve reached the end of the Spoiler Free Review.

I really loved Black Panther.  Despite the weakness of Michael B. Jordan’s character, there were some excellent moments that stood out for me in this film.  I especially enjoyed the sequence that took place in Oakland, where we saw N’Jobu’s deception and how he was outed.  That was a very powerful moment in the film.  As I stated already, Killmonger’s motive was clear and absolutely grounded in truth.  He had real motivation, but I just didn’t believe Jordan’s delivery.  Sterling K. Brown (N’Jobu) was much more believable.  I understood why he was doing what he was doing, and actually sided with him a bit.

I loved how Coogler shot the “rescue” sequence early in the film where T’Challa and Okoye retrieve Nakia.  It reminded me of many of the old African Safari themed films where predators were viewed in the glimpses of headlights and flashlights.  The scene where T’Challa is viewed in the trees with flashlights was epic!

I also loved the technology of the Black Panther costume and of Wakanda as a whole.  I saw nods to the otherworldly tech of the Sovereigns in GotG, Vol. 2, as well as hints at Iron Man’s ability to absorb and redirect energy back at his opponent (which he discovered by accident in Avengers and Shuri apparently developed in Black Panther).

One thing that I disliked about the film was how Winston Duke’s M’Baku was severely underused.  He was an excellent traditionalist foil to T’Challa’s tech-loving people.  For those unfamiliar, M’Baku is also known as Man-Ape in the comics.  He’s one of Black Panther’s enemies, and I actually hope that he gets a bigger push in later Black Panther films or at least in Avengers: Infinity War.

I was also a bit miffed at how easily Klaue was defeated by Killmonger.  I knew that sooner or later he would double-cross Klaue, but I felt like the weaker of the two villains came out on top.  Had Killmonger been more imposing, Klaue’s death wouldn’t have been such a bummer.

Culturally, this is a very important film.  Yes, there have been black superheroes represented in their own films before like Blade (which I highly recommend and love), but none have been literal kings.  Sure, Luke Cage gave us a hero to believe in, but he was still situated on the streets in an urban world where crime ruled.  With Black Panther, we see a country full of Africans living in peace, advanced technologically, and full of characters that are intelligent and respectful of their traditions but always looking forward.

So yes, there were a couple of problems with this film but it opened eyes to one of Marvel’s best kept secrets and the wonderful world in which he lives as king and protector.

Thanks for reading.  Let me know how you feel about the film in the comments section.

Wakanda forever!!!!!

 

A Split Decision

Aboard The Cloverfield Station

The Cloverfield Paradox is a paradox in more ways than one.  For starters, it’s production was full of scheduling changes, story additions, ties to the Cloverfield universe supposedly shoehorned into the film, production company changes, etc.  While these types of changes are par for the course in many major films, TCP had them in spades.  The theatrical release date moved no less than five times across a two year period.  The film finished shooting in September of 2016, with release dates ranging from February 2017 to April 2018.  Paramount also had difficulty with how to market the film, resulting in them accepting an offer from Netflix to purchase the film’s rights in order to gain a guaranteed profit instead of risking the film doing poorly in theaters.   This led many people that were waiting for the film’s release to lose confidence in it.  So much just didn’t make sense about the TCP’s many apparent troubles.

Super Bowl Sunday 2018 threw everyone a massive curveball when Netflix announced during the game that the movie would be available on the streamer when the game was over. I didn’t watch the film that night, but have watched it three times over the last few weeks.

I enjoyed the film.  From what I’ve read on the web, though, the film has received a lukewarm reception from general audiences and pretty much total hatred from “professional” critics.  Review websites also slammed the film, but I’ve noticed something in all of the reviews of the film that I’ve read:  The reviewers didn’t really pay attention to what was going on.  They were so hellbent on finding something wrong with the film (in my opinion) that they didn’t really give the movie a shot.  I’ll cover this and more in my review below.

Spoiler-Free Review

The Cloverfield Paradox takes us aboard the Cloverfield Station, a multi-national project that is attempting to find a new energy source for Earth by using the Shepard, a particle accelerator that is similar to the Large Hadron Collider.  Why?  Because energy is becoming scarce on Earth and it’s actually pushing many nations to the brink of war.  Conspiracy theorists believe that using the Shepard successfully might produce a paradox in which our world would collide with, combine with, or rip apart other worlds or dimensions, thus causing chaos throughout time and space.

Aboard the station is a small crew of brilliant minds, each serving a different purpose.  The film focuses on Ava Hamilton (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who handles communications for the station.  Her story is split between the station and that of her husband, Michael (Roger Davies), who is back on Earth.  They’ve been apart for two years now and both are ready for Ava to return home.

The rest of the crew includes the fairly straight line commander, Kiel (David Oyelowo), the lead physicist on the project, Schmidt (Daniel Bruhl), his assistant engineer, Tam (Zhang Ziyi), station engineer and all around glum chum, Volkov (Aksel Hennie), station doctor, Monk (John Ortiz), and another station engineer, Mundy (Chris O’Dowd), who provides some light but much needed humor in the film.

During one of the attempts at firing up the Shepard, we see an interview from Earth featuring a conspiracy theorist, Mark Stambler (the always wonderful Donal Logue), warning the planet of the impending doom to come if the Shepard ever succeeds in stabilizing itself and producing energy.  Commander Kiel barks an order for the interview to be turned off.

Eventually the Shepard stabilizes.  The crew believe that they are successful until the beam somehow destabilizes and overloads the entire station’s power.  Power is eventually restored to most of the station and then the crew realize that the Earth is now gone.

Commander Kiel has the crew begin repairs on the station as Ava attempts to make contact with Earth.  Weird things begin to happen on the station.  I won’t list all of them here, but one example is that Mundy’s arm is removed from his body by the station.  The arm is then later found roaming around the station on its own and communicates with the crew by writing a message to them.

Eventually Earth is found, but it is on the other side of the sun and it is not the station’s version of Earth.  The station has been transported to a parallel universe where Ava wasn’t on the Cloverfield Station and this universe’s station has been destroyed (apparently by the space time rip).  A new crew member shows up on the station (I won’t say how) named Jensen (Elizabeth Debicki).  She is this universe’s assistant engineer to Schmidt and he is apparently a saboteur for Germany, who is already waging war on Earth.  This creates tension within the crew as Kiel, Hamilton, and the rest try to determine what’s going on.

Back in our universe, Michael is awakened to a world that is apparently being destroyed by a new menace.  This menace is familiar to fans of the Cloverfield universe, but I won’t reveal what it is.  He also learns that the space station has vanished.

On the station, the crew attempts to find a way back to their dimension.  More anomalies occur and Hamilton learns that in this world, her children are alive.  In our world, they passed away in an accident due to something that she did.  She also learns that in this world, she stayed on Earth because of her family.  She makes the decision to stay behind with Jensen so that she can return to the parallel Earth to be with her family.

Without giving too much away, sacrifice and murder follow as the crew attempts to return home.  The unpredictability of the station and how it and the crew react to the chaos that they’ve caused keeps you on your toes.  It keeps you engaged.

The story rolls along at a tense pace, combining elements of films such as  Alien and Event Horizon to provide some wonderful thrills and “What the heck?” moments.  It definitely takes a little bit of effort from the audience to sit and watch the ENTIRE film and not look at their phone or Facebook in order to understand what’s happening but the payoff is worth it in my opinion.

I really liked this film.  Despite the many troubles it faced during production, the film is visually stunning.  The CGI is only noticeable with the removal of Mundy’s arm.  The station itself looks wonderful and the shots of space are excellent.

The entire cast did an excellent job with their performances.  Mbatha-Raw delivered an excellence performance as the grief-stricken mother caught between two worlds.  Bruhl was convincing as a man who is hard to trust, but absolutely crucial to the survival of the crew.  Ziyi and Hennie were excellent as polar opposites.  Ziyi fully believed in Schmidt’s work but Hennie perfectly embodied complete distrust and paranoia towards Schmidt.  O’Dowd kept things as light as possible for a crew trapped in a parallel universe and I hoped more than once that he’d suggest “trying to turn it off and on again” when the Shepard fails.  Fans of The IT Crowd will get that reference. Ortiz delivers a solid performance as well, as does Oyelowo as the stern but understanding commander.  Debicki’s performance added heavily to the tension in the film.  At no point in the film did I trust her, but she gave just enough fleeting hints of hope to Hamilton to make me want to trust her.

I definitely recommend this film.  It’s much better than the critics say.  You HAVE TO WATCH the film in its entirety and pay attention to what’s going on while it plays out.  What doesn’t make sense is supposed to not make sense.  Don’t just dismiss it as poor writing or “an editing decision” to save time.  This film is good.  Trust me.

Read below to find out why I believe that the critics hated this film.  Spoilers Ahead!!!!!

Okay, I’ve said that I liked this film and that I believe it’s worth your time to view.  So why do all of the critics hate this film?

1. You have to give your full attention to the movie.  If you don’t pay attention to what’s happening, everything that already doesn’t make sense in the film will be harder to comprehend.
2. You have to think a little bit while watching this film.  Most target audiences and mainstream critics these days grew up in an age where films spoonfed them every little detail about the movie.  The Cloverfield Paradox rolls along assuming that viewer has enough cognitive ability to realize that what is happening to the crew and the station doesn’t make sense because worlds are literally colliding and fusing with one another.  Volkov talks to himself after the Shepard’s overload because he is fused with himself from the parallel world.  He literally convinces himself to kill Schmidt because he doesn’t trust either version of Schmidt.  Jensen appears in the station’s walls with cabling through her body because that happened to be where she was standing in her world when it collided with our world.
3. They felt that the Netflix Super Bowl promo was a sign of desperation.  Yes, I slightly agree with them that this does smell a bit like desperation on Netflix’s part, but you have to admit that it was a brilliant and sudden move.  It offered the film immediate exposure on one of the world’s largest stages.  It gave viewers just enough of a taste of the film to peak their interest.  Only time will tell if this gamble pays off.
4. The still feel slighted by the success of Bright. Critics hated Brght, the Will Smith vehicle released a few months prior to The Cloverfield Paradox.  They slammed the movie and yet viewers still streamed the film and fell in love with it.  They loved it so much that Netflix already has a sequel in the works.  While it’s a bit of a reach on my part, I honestly believe that some of the critics intentionally downplayed TCP in an attempt to take a cheapshot at Netflix.

Seriously, this film is much better than the critics are claiming.  Pop some popcorn, grab a big glass of your favorite drink, and sit back and enjoy this film.  It’s not like most standard films these days, but it is definitely worth a look.

In all honesty, selling the rights to Netflix was probably the best thing for Paramount.  I honestly don’t believe that TCP would have done that well in theaters.  I can definitely see how marketing found it difficult to pitch this film to general audiences in the hopes that they would plunk down money to watch this film in a theater, but offering it on a streaming service allows people to see the film without really sacrificing too much.  I believe that watching films in this fashion actually works to their advantage.  Why?  Because there are a ton of good films out there that never get viewed because audiences don’t want to take a risk on them.  On a streaming service you can start watching the film and then turn it off if you aren’t interested.  It costs nothing more than a monthly service fee, and that’s a lot cheaper than a seat at the movies.

Again, watch The Cloverfield Paradox.  It’s a strange and brilliant little gem that I really enjoyed.

Thanks for reading.  Let me know how you felt about this movie in the comments.