Monday, September 02, 2013

Ask JKM a Question: Cloud Atlas?


A regular reader, Chris, writes:

"We've chatted a bit in the past before. I love your books, blog, and the genre-praising and reinforcing tone of your writings (cult, horror, sci-fi, and more). 

For months now, I've been tempting, pushing myself to sit myself down and watch Cloud Atlas. Due to my usual temptations, beforehand, I glanced at a select few genre-fansite reviews, and... I was halted by the reach of what I was reading. 

What these few reviewers were hinting at, was that this Cloud Atlas turns out to be the most 'evolved' and far-reachingingly complex sci-film ever attempted by the human race. In fact, so much so, there's no mere mortal who could come close to possibly grasping or understanding it all, especially not in one or even two sittings. To me, reading that was not just intimidating, but almost a turn off. I mean come on, really? Certainly on the audacious side. Being a technology and computer geek, I've always been a fan of the filmmakers' Matrix trilogy. I found it to be just the right amount of befuddlement, as those films toyed with my various layers of reality-mortality-philosophy. 

But, they're making Cloud Atlas sound like "2001" to the "Inception" power (with maybe a little Tree of Life/Melancholia flavoring thrown in. Name your philosophical poison...). For me, Inception was far too much like calculus. I was never good at math. Inception was frankly too much thinking and too little touching. The best movies not only entertain, but connect on a magically personal level. The Matrix films actually connected with me on many personal levels. Nothing too terribly complicated. Sort of the same thing that has Morgan Freeman exploring the universe with his "Through the Wormhole" series. A celebration of relatively tangible (albeit technically never-to-be-literally-answered) questions. Gets you thinking, absolutely, but... not to the point of a headache. 

Anywhooo, I searched your blog for a Cloud Atlas review. My hope (and I do this often) was that, if I were to watch Cloud Atlas, and it were to leave me in a perpetually eye-glazed, brain-unraveling state, I could quickly dive into your analysis ---- and find my way back down to Earth. Your analyses very often work that way for me. They explain, teach, celebrate, but also explain, and direct the flow of mental-traffic to a grasp-able thesis. 

And so, I'd like to see how you parse this 'genre-breaker' of a film called Cloud Atlas!  Maybe I'm worried for no reason at all.  I realize this one may take some work. Hopefully, not too much, though! I'll be scanning the Muir blog-waves! 



Chris, I want to thank you for that extraordinary vote of confidence in my skills as a film critic.  I appreciate your words tremendously, and will endeavor to live up to them. At your behest, I did watch Cloud Atlas about two weeks ago, and fell in love with the film.  I will definitely explain why, so look for my review of Cloud Atlas tomorrow morning at 6:00 am sharp!  We'll see how I do!  

Don't forget to ask me your questions at Muirbusiness@yahoo.com

3 comments:

  1. I liked this movie quite a bit myself, though it's a very unique picture for me, in that I can easily understand why someone wouldn't like it. Usually when I see a movie I love I'm baffled by people who don't feel the same way. But this one is complex; I admire its ambition but thought that the payoff wasn't really there for it all, that ultimately its premises were new-agey and not terribly interesting. Truth be told, I thought that Cloud Atlas was the kind of movie our blockbusters should be: wild, expansive, entertaining...yet somehow falling short of art. Not mind-numbingly dumb or derivative like every other blockbuster; just a faithful, competent, and sincere enough effort to throw into relief how great the truly great films are.

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    Replies
    1. Hi David,

      I fell in love with Cloud Atlas over the way it attempted to transcend traditional Hollywood narrative structure, and tell a more sweeping story about mankind as a whole. The movie plays like the history of -- if not humanity -- then the human spirit. On that basis, I think it succeeds as a work of art, though I understand your point of view as well.

      I think that in this case, some of the more conventional "sci-fi" Hollywood stuff -- the chases and fights -- slow down the film too much, and don't contribute overall, to the picture's point. I think the fourth story is most significant in this failing. The people who want to watch and engage with Cloud Atlas aren't exactly the people who are looking for Matrix-style action and effects, in my opinion.

      But still, I love the film, and featured it at number 4 on my "greatest" list last week, for the span 2000 - 2013.

      Great comment, my friend.

      best,
      John

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