Julius Onah
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Event Horizon (1997)
Directed by Paul W. S. Anderson
influenced The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)
Themes Plot
A hodgepodge of everything from Alien to Event Horizon to an episode of “Fringe” to Back to the Future to an H.P. Lovecraft story to the classic 1983 television movie The Day After, to call this effort a mess would be massively understating things.
After the accident, we suddenly shift into a sci-fi horror vibe, as if the ship has crossed over into the hellish dimension from Event Horizon.
Essentially: Blame science, and take a page or three from the scripts for Alien, Event Horizon and Pacific Rim.
This entry lacks the freshness of both, though, and instead regurgitates a sloppy stew inspired by the likes of Event Horizon , Life , and Interstellar .
Manically riffing on “Sunshine,” “Interstellar,” “Alien,” and then “Event Horizon” in a mad dash to obscure the fact that the film looks like a basic cable episode of “Battlestar Galactica,” “The Cloverfield Paradox” illustrates the dangerous cognitive dissonance that can result from a painfully derivative movie about a situation where anything is possible.
There is one brief section of the movie that doesn’t go along these lines and elects to go crazy instead—it starts off with O’Dowd’s character inexplicably losing his arm while trying to repair a wall and grows progressively battier—and it is the best portion of the movie because it is the one part where it seems to be doing its own thing instead of simply cribbing from films ranging from “Supernova” and “Event Horizon” to practically the entire “Alien” saga.
Wearing its influences far too readily on its sleeve – virtually every spaceship movie made in the last fifty years, from Alien to last year’s far superior but criminally-underrated Life – The Cloverfield Paradox, despite a strong opening and a satisfactorily-downbeat ending, has little of real interest going on for the bulk of its running time.
It’s not a monster movie, it’s not a character study of a diverse group working together to accomplish a scientific goal that could potentially bring about world peace, it’s not straight-up horror (the terrifying bits do seem inspired by Alien which is pleasant to report), and it’s not a time paradox mind-bender; it’s all of the above and fails at them all.
A hodgepodge of everything from Alien to Event Horizon to an episode of “Fringe” to Back to the Future to an H.P. Lovecraft story to the classic 1983 television movie The Day After , to call this effort a mess would be massively understating things.
To name only a handful: Poltergeist, Evil Dead 2, Moon, Another Earth, Alien, Event Horizon and even Alien Resurrection seem to receive clear callbacks.
Essentially: Blame science, and take a page or three from the scripts for Alien, Event Horizon and Pacific Rim.
Manically riffing on “Sunshine,” “Interstellar,” “Alien,” and then “Event Horizon” in a mad dash to obscure the fact that the film looks like a basic cable episode of “Battlestar Galactica,” “The Cloverfield Paradox” illustrates the dangerous cognitive dissonance that can result from a painfully derivative movie about a situation where anything is possible.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Directed by Joe Russo
influenced Captain America: Brave New World (2025)
Visuals Themes
…the covert ops mission Cap runs in Mexico feels lifted straight from the opening of Winter Soldier.
…even as a director, Onah wants to evoke the visceral paranoia-infused thriller of “Captain America: Winter Soldier” (2014); his action set pieces lack that energetic flair or urgency…
…much like Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). But, unlike that tight-as-a-drum masterpiece, here the frankly inferior screenplay purposefully ties plot elements together from The Incredible Hulk (2008)…
It’s a far cry from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a top-notch political thriller and one of the greatest superhero movies of all time.
…it’s not quite up to the standard of previous efforts like The Winter Soldier or Civil War…
Captain America: The Winter Soldier showed why a spy agency like SHIELD would be the perfect place for Nazis to fester with official positions within the government.
Interstellar (2014)
Directed by Christopher Nolan
influenced The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)
Plot Characters Themes
This entry lacks the freshness of both, though, and instead regurgitates a sloppy stew inspired by the likes of Event Horizon , Life , and Interstellar .
There’s so little investment in her narrative that Ava’s big emotional moment plays like a rip-off of Matthew McConaughey’s iconic Interstellar breakdown.
But with its haphazard plot twists and muddy motivations, Paradox mostly takes the boring parts from Life , Alien: Covenant , Event Horizon , and Interstellar (yes, people cry looking at screens), with a hint of one of the lesser Black Mirror episodes, and adds the word “Cloverfield.”
Story creators Oren Uziel and Doug Jung borrow heavily from films like “Interstellar,” ″Alien,” ″Event Horizon” and even “Evil Dead II” to create their thriller, but fall victim to strange detours, including a woefully flimsy Earth-bound story-line that pointlessly follows one of the astronaut’s husbands.
There are humanist bits and chunks of “Interstellar” and “Arrival,” though in order to set up another chapter of this loosely assembled saga of woe, “The Cloverfield Paradox” eventually, dutifully gets around to a nonhuman adversary in close-up.
Manically riffing on “Sunshine,” “Interstellar,” “Alien,” and then “Event Horizon” in a mad dash to obscure the fact that the film looks like a basic cable episode of “Battlestar Galactica,” “The Cloverfield Paradox” illustrates the dangerous cognitive dissonance that can result from a painfully derivative movie about a situation where anything is possible.
10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)
Directed by Dan Trachtenberg
influenced The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)
Plot
In 2016, a film initially titled The Cellar got branded 10 Cloverfield Lane and was released to critical plaudits and financial success; the movie had little to do with the original Cloverfield but had the same winking, self-aware approach to sci-fi horror (and the same production team).
A trainwreck of a sci-fi flick bent on extending a franchise that should have died a peaceful death almost exactly one decade ago, Julius Onah's The Cloverfield Paradox follows the lead of the far-superior 10 Cloverfield Lane in imagining a Cloverfield spinoff whose genre ingredients have little to do with the original found-footage, giant-monster flick.
It's a far cry from 2008's fun, inventive Cloverfield and 2016's smart, intense 10 Cloverfield Lane.
But like 10 Cloverfield Lane, the monsters are kind of an afterthought with the meat of the story and conflicts focused elsewhere.
While its predecessors, 2008’s Cloverfield and 2016’s 10 Cloverfield Lane , thrived on pre-release mystery, this was starting to feel less like calculated secrecy and more like a panicked flight.
While 10 Cloverfield Lane left us in the dark throughout the movie, The Cloverfield Paradox continually cuts back to Earth to show us that the monster is there, somewhere, doing something.
Manically riffing on “Sunshine,” “Interstellar,” “Alien,” and then “Event Horizon” in a mad dash to obscure the fact that the film looks like a basic cable episode of “Battlestar Galactica,” “The Cloverfield Paradox” illustrates the dangerous cognitive dissonance that can result from a painfully derivative movie about a situation where anything is possible.
1979's "Alien," 1997's "Event Horizon," 2002's " Solaris ," 2007's " Sunshine ," and 2017's " Life ," to name a fewall are far superior space-set variations on similar themes and concepts involving alternate realities, deadly creatures, and a valiant attempt to save the world as the body count rises.
The film is that particular sort of sci-fi picture that most naturally asks to be described largely in terms of the other sci-fi pictures it resembles: in this case, the (wonderful, ever-underrated) 2007 Sunshine passes through 1997's Event Horizon on the way to becoming Alien , because of that universal law which decrees that all sci-fi/horror films eventually become Alien .
As you watch, you’ll think of movies like Event Horizon and Sunshine—and then you’ll immediately feel a need to apologize to those movies.
There’s no antagonist whatsoever in Cloverfield Paradox , not even an abstract one, like the sun in Danny Boyle’s Sunshine , or the merciless void of space in Gravity .
Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
Directed by Shawn Levy
influenced Captain America: Brave New World (2025)
Themes
…the very same connected series of alternate universes we’ve been watching onscreen for four whole years, in shows like Loki and movies like Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Deadpool & Wolverine…
…box-office busting crowdpleasers (Spider-Man: No Way Home, Deadpool & Wolverine)…
After essentially taking 2024 off for Deadpool & Wolverine…
…since that monumental match-up of DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, which was the only MCU flick of 2024…
Marvel Studios returns to the big screen after a year that saw their lowest output aside from the 2020, only offering up the R-rated record-smashing blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine to the masses.
With familiar drama driving Brave New World forward – and fewer comedic aspirations than your Guardians or your Deadpool and Wolverines…
An aerial battle that pits Cap and Falcon against a bevy of fighter jets feels new to the MCU, especially because it veers closer to the original Top Gun than Top Gun: Maverick.
Later Onah expands his scope as the conflict heads to the very open high seas with Sam and Joaquin in full TOP GUN mode…
The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Directed by Louis Leterrier
influenced Captain America: Brave New World (2025)
Themes Plot
Despite the various script touch-ups, there’s sensible connections from films from as far back as The Incredible Hulk, Civil War and more recent fare like The Eternals in a way that proves rewarding once again to be invested in the entirety of the MCU.
…leaning more on Louis Leterrier’s The Incredible Hulk and Chloé Zhao’sEternals than it does the preceding Captain America films.
…how much the film actively serves as a closure and a quasi-sequel to “The Incredible Hulk” (2008)…
…having an obvious restructure that has more parts The Incredible Hulk (Marvel can’t make another solo Hulk film due to rights) than the titular hero.
Those who have long been watching MCU films will appreciate the incorporation of previously-seen characters from The Incredible Hulk and Eternals…
…dangling plot threads from other MCU efforts (notably 2008’s The Incredible Hulk and 2021’s Eternals)…
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Directed by John Frankenheimer
influenced Captain America: Brave New World (2025)
Plot
…watered-down Manchurian Candidate riffs…
Clearly, shenanigans of the Manchurian Candidate sort are afoot…
Now Brave New World makes direct reference to a classic of the genre, The Manchurian Candidate, when Isaiah Bradley (Lumbly), a forgotten victim of the super soldier program, tries to assassinate former general, now president Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Ford, stepping in for the late William Hurt), but claims to have no memory of the crime.
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Directed by Joe Russo
influenced Captain America: Brave New World (2025)
Themes
Two of the Steve Rogers solo adventures (Winter Soldier and Civil War) were heavily influenced by classic Cold War spy dramas.
Despite the various script touch-ups, there’s sensible connections from films from as far back as The Incredible Hulk, Civil War and more recent fare like The Eternals in a way that proves rewarding once again to be invested in the entirety of the MCU.
Conceptually, Brave New World positions itself somewhere between the dueling political intrigue of The Winter Soldier and Civil War…
…it’s not quite up to the standard of previous efforts like The Winter Soldier or Civil War…
And the three previous Captain America films have been among my very favorite movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
…the colossal spectacle of Civil War…
1979's "Alien," 1997's "Event Horizon," 2002's " Solaris ," 2007's " Sunshine ," and 2017's " Life ," to name a fewall are far superior space-set variations on similar themes and concepts involving alternate realities, deadly creatures, and a valiant attempt to save the world as the body count rises.
…harking back to the Post-9/11 era that had the screenplays of Iron Man and Iron Man 2 in an iron grip.
It is essentially a “work”—movies that are solely responsible for setting up the universe and pushing the larger plot of the universe forward—similar to films like “Iron Man 2” (2010) and “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (2015)…
…in an eerily Iron Man 2 kind of way…
Iron Man (2008)
Directed by Jon Favreau
influenced Captain America: Brave New World (2025)
Themes Dialogue
…harking back to the Post-9/11 era that had the screenplays of Iron Man and Iron Man 2 in an iron grip.
His dialogue echoes that of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) in Marvel’s first-ever credit stinger post–Iron Man, in which he tells Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), “You think you’re the only superhero in the world? Mr. Stark, you’ve become part of a bigger universe. You just don’t know it yet.”
Iron Man (2008) was once a bright new superhero on the block, becoming the first of many glossy, big-budget action movies from producer Kevin Feige.
That is a promising concept, I suppose—something like a sci-fi take on the classic Daffy Duck cartoon “Duck Amuck,” in which Daffy was at the mercy of a mischievous animator (guess who?) who changed the circumstances of his existence in a flash with increasing surreal results—but screenwriter Oren Uziel has no clear idea of how to implement such an idea.
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Directed by Jon Watts
influenced Captain America: Brave New World (2025)
Themes
…the very same connected series of alternate universes we’ve been watching onscreen for four whole years, in shows like Loki and movies like Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Deadpool & Wolverine…
…box-office busting crowdpleasers (Spider-Man: No Way Home, Deadpool & Wolverine)…
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
Directed by Sam Raimi
influenced Captain America: Brave New World (2025)
Themes
…the very same connected series of alternate universes we’ve been watching onscreen for four whole years, in shows like Loki and movies like Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Deadpool & Wolverine…
“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and “Thor: Love and Thunder” also saw similar declines of 67% in their respective sophomore outings…
…or the third act of The Marvels…
Even if the film suffers a significant second weekend drop like The Marvels (79% after a $46.1 million opening)…
…the criminally underrated The Marvels…
…danger music score of Laura Karpman (The Marvels)…
Air Force One (1997)
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen
influenced Captain America: Brave New World (2025)
Characters Plot
Also having Ford play POTUS is a brilliant shout out to “Air Force One” (1997)…
…one can’t help wishing they were watching Air Force One rather than another Marvel chapter…
…beyond a few Air Force One jokes…
It’s been 18 years since Harrison Ford last played a US President in Air Force One.
…leaning more on Louis Leterrier’s The Incredible Hulk and Chloé Zhao’sEternals than it does the preceding Captain America films.
…taking its “McGuffin” from the lambasted ETERNALS…
In contrast, “Brave New World” feels stuck, spending more time tying up loose ends from films like “The Incredible Hulk” and “Eternals” than giving Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) – now Captain America – anything meaningful to fight for.
Those who have long been watching MCU films will appreciate the incorporation of previously-seen characters from The Incredible Hulk and Eternals…
Having recently been elected President of the United States, Ross is negotiating a treaty with international allies following the emergence of a Celestial in the Indian Ocean (as depicted in Eternals).
The action scene over Celestial Island, returning at long last after its debut in Eternals, was electric…