Ever since Sundance, there have been rumors revolving around Netflix potentially acquiring the next Cloverfield film, which we now know as The Cloverfield Paradox. Not long after, there were rumors about Netflix potentially even dropping a trailer during the Super Bowl.

Both rumors ended up being very true, though things were pushed even further. Rather than drop a trailer and let enthusiasm run its course, Netflix used the TV spot as an announcement that the film would be streaming in only a few hours. Talk about a huge surprise, right?

But how is the film? Well, so far, it doesn’t seem to be faring so well on Rotten Tomatoes. As of this writing, there are 19 reviews, and of those, only 3 of them are fresh, meaning that film is sitting at a 16 percent Rotten rating.

RELATED – The Cloverfield Paradox Premieres Tonight On Netflix

So what are some of the critics saying? Well, let’s take a look:

Variety – John DeFore

“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. Dumped by Netflix in a high-profile but logistically poisoned post-Super Bowl time slot, it comes with a built-in excuse: If most viewers are snoring on the couch by the half-hour mark, maybe it’s because they’ve spent several hours guzzling beer and eating chicken wings? A theatrical release would likely have been disastrous for this dud; with any luck, it will be forgotten amid tomorrow’s hangovers.”

/Film – Chris Evangelista

“There is a good movie in here, somewhere. A longer runtime, giving the narrative more room to breathe and the characters more development, would’ve been a wiser choice. Instead, The Cloverfield Paradox is rushed to the extreme, sprinting towards a conclusion that ultimately feels like a huge middle finger to an audience that wants nothing more than to see this franchise succeed.”

Nerdist – Rosie Knight

“At its best, The Cloverfield Paradox is a fantastically tense locked room mystery in space, playing off complex concepts like quantum entanglement theory. In its weaker moments, it’s a solid sci-fi that leans heavily into the giants who’ve walked before it, whether it’s the suspicion and paranoia of The Thing or the brutal industrial body horror of Tetsuo the Iron Man. The film’s true strength comes from its vision and incredibly strong cast.”

Collider – Matt Goldberg

“In the case of The Cloverfield Paradox (previously titled God Particle), it’s about scientists bickering on board the space station as everything goes horribly wrong. This is the same issue we saw last year with Life, but at least that movie had the benefit of the organism doing things. Onah’s movie just shrugs, and if it needs something bad to happen, it will happen and blame it on the dimension jumping. Rather than give the movie any sense of tension that horrible things could happen (and these are horrible things happen under what would have been a PG-13 rating), it just makes the narrative feel lazy to the point where a character may as well announce, “I hope [bad thing] doesn’t happen!” we then wait ten minutes, and [bad thing] happens.”

Personally, I have yet to take a look at the film myself, and hope to do so in the next week or so. However, given how much I enjoyed the first two films, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about the overall negative reception to the film so far.

What do you think of these first impressions? Let us know your thoughts down below!

Don’t forget to share this post on your Facebook wall and with your Twitter followers! Just hit the buttons on the top of this page.

SOURCE: Various