The original Cloverfield movie featured a new kaiju stomping around New York City destroying everything in its path. The movie was mildly entertaining despite the fact that it focused way too much on the human stories and the shaky camera effect was so bad that theaters eventually had to put up warnings about the movie.
The moment the first movie became a hit, J.J. Abrams started addressing the myriad of questions the movie raised. Will there be a sequel? What is the significance of the fact that the monster was not killed in the movie? Was the monster from Earth or outer space? J.J. Abrams promised sequels that would answer all of the questions, and so far he has kept his word.
Abrams finally confirmed that 10 Cloverfield Lane was indeed the second installment in the series. He did not say how many more movies there would be, but he did say with a definite tone that there will be a third movie. Will it have monsters? Will it have aliens? Why was John Goodman in the second movie?
The second movie finally told us that, if we are to believe that it is tied to the first, that the monster itself came from outer space. But then the Cloverfield story went off in a weird direction. I won't tell you how 10 Cloverfield Lane ends because you should see it for yourself, but it definitely did not give the feeling that it was tied in any way to the monster movie we saw in the first flick. It actually gave the effect that kaiju fans feared - the effect of Cloverfield not being a monster franchise at all.
If you haven't already heard, the third movie is called God Particle and it is set to open on October 27, 2017, which means there is a strong chance we can all see it at the drive-in. Abrams has a talented habit of using trailers and teasers to send audiences in a completely different direction than where the movie is going, and that could be what is going on here. God Particle is about astronauts who find themselves the last humans left from Earth, until they find out they are not the last humans left from Earth.
For me personally, I was hoping for more kaijus out of Abrams. He indicated that he wanted to start his own American monster movie franchise and said that Cloverfield was it. I have this bad feeling that either Abrams is not sure what a monster movie franchise is, or he was trying to get an audience for his movies that he knew would be passionate.
I have not seen anything from this movie yet, but I do know that the majority of it is done. We don't know what really happens in this movie and we don't know if this is the final movie of a trilogy or the next installment in a franchise. In true J.J. Abrams style, he is going to make us wait to find out.
George N Root III is a movie fanatic who loves digging up dirt on new projects. Follow him on Twitter @georgenroot3, or send him a message at georgenroot3@gmail.com.