The Freakin Wachowskis: Cloud Atlas

These fuckers...

We get it! You did the Matrix. It was awesome.

The Matrix continues to be one of the best Sci-Fi films I've ever watched. Not only because the action is really great, but its also a form of Science Fiction and a world that was just created out of originality and brilliance.

I applaud the Wachowskis for this film. Its great.

And then there were the sequels.

Suddenly the film that was just a great science fiction film turned into a trilogy about... something.

Don't get me wrong, the action from the second film is great and the third film is... well the third film.

But the second and third film were so convoluted with bullshit and the Wachowskis spouting off, "ASK ME WHAT IT MEANS! ASK ME WHAT IT MEANS!"

I don't want to get too much into a review of the Matrix films, I imagine thats coming sooner rather than later.

I'm more interested in their BS and their diversion with Cloud Atlas.

As I've said before, I like the movie Cloud Atlas. After reading the book, I think I've come to like it even more.

But with watching the movie, I've realized the arrogance of the Wachowskis to spew off their... whatever they try and spew off and in doing so, totally miss the point, especially in the source material they're working with.

Now I have to get these guys credit, they have done a lot with their work, they're successful. And when they want to make a movie adaptation, they have the right to take it maybe in a different direction to better suit a movie adaptation. Furthermore, there are a lot of themes in Cloud Atlas. Its a book with 6 different stories. As much as people want to believe their interconnected in one way or another, they're very different and have their own morals and themes. It would be impossible for the Wachowskis to get all the themes in the book.

But the theme they go for really baffles me... and its reincarnation...

Now its not saying that the book doesn't have reincarnation in it. Mitchell has even stated that every character in the book is a reincarnated version of the previous one with the "comet" birthmark.

But that's not the point of the book. It seems as though the suggestion of reincarnation being involved is more of a tool to further connect the stories. Mitchell states that the theme comes more into the idea of predacity and way people exploit others. Individuals exploit individuals, groups exploit other groups, nations on nations, tribes on tribes, etc.

But that's the great things about books, even the author can have different meaning than his readers and what I got out of it was the interconnectivity of people. The best example of this comes with the Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish.

More importantly, the effect it has on Sonmi.

There's a slight reference to the movie that Sonmi watches. Its a funny reference because so much time has passed that a movie that, in our time, was probably considered a comedy or a melodrama, to Sonmi, being the only movie she's ever seen, has an incredible effect on her.

Its seen as an inspiration. Not the root of the revolution, but a catalyst for it. It kind of starts the flame in Sonmi in the book, whereas in the film, its just a connecting element of it.

And I think this is an example of the Wachowskis missing the point. Or if they had the point which they kind of did in making a big deal out of Ewing joining the abolition movement to end this cycle of predacity, but the point is, they're so caught up in this reincarnation bullshit that they miss an important aspect of the story.

Maybe its because of reincarnation, maybe not, but there's an interconnectivity of people. The actions we do in one way may effect those in the future. Even if they're small things like making a comedy, that Cavendish didn't intend to be a revolutionary film, and it was.

And that's the part of Luisa Rey that made me so angry and what I want to talk about.

The Wachowskis needed to streamline the story of Luisa Rey, which I get, its a complex story, one that cannot be done in a movie that has 6 other story lines to deal with. But in doing so, they stuff it with their reincarnation bullshit and totally miss the point of one of the greatest parts of that story.

There's a point where Issac Sachs is on a plane and he just starts writing. In the book, he writes about the future and pasts we create and the reality. Its a great little piece on our views of history and how our perspective of the past effect our perspective of the future, its hard to explain on this but its just great!

What does he do instead? Some BS about past lives and reincarnation and how he feels he knows Luisa Rey from a different life and... its Bullshit!

Again, I don't mean to say that there is no theme of reincarnation in the book. But for the Wachowskis to just gloss over all the other themes of interconnectivity and predacity and all the other things you could get from this book and just say, "Its Reincarnation, that's it!"

FUCK YOU GUYS!

Stop trying to be more thought provoking than you actually are. Its just like the Matrix. You have something that works. Keep it the way it is. Don't overthink it, don't overdo it. Just do it!

And I've seen you just do it before! I've seen you guys just do your thing and not try too hard.

You know how to write. I have no doubt of that. I enjoy your work! I love the Matrix, I love V For Vendetta. When you don't try too hard, your shit is good!

Its when you try and get too lofty, its when you bring in whatever spiritual or deeper meaning shit that things just get convoluted. 

Cloud Atlas just barely stays below what you did in Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions where you were just screaming, ASK ME WHAT IT MEANS! ASK ME WHAT IT MEANS!

David Mitchell wrote a book that has reincarnation in it. But for pete's sake the man was at least subtle about it. Its an element but its not the entire book. 

There's so much you can get out of Cloud Atlas and when its just a dead line of reincarnation, I feel like people miss out on so much that can be pulled out of the story. 

The Wachowskis are coming back with a new film in 2015 called Jupiter Ascending.