Trailer Trashin’: Sci-Fi Meets the Surreal in Cloud Atlas
Another week brings another new trailer to dissect and analyze. In this week’s column, I turn my cold, bespectacled gaze onto the second trailer for the upcoming sci-fi/drama epic Cloud Atlas.
Premise: An epic story of humankind in which the actions and consequences of our lives impact one another throughout the past, present, and future, as one soul is shaped from a murderer into a savior, and a single act of kindness ripples out for centuries to inspire a revolution.
My take: Regardless of your opinions of their films, I don’t think anyone can deny that the Wachowskis are two of the most interesting and unpredictable filmmakers working today. While they’ve certainly had their missteps – the two Matrix sequels spring to mind – I can’t help but admire the fact that they keep trying new things and refuse to be pigeonholed into just one kind of film. This time around, they’re teaming up with German filmmaker Tom Tykwer, whose credits include Run Lola Run (1998), Heaven (2002), and The International (2009), with an adaptation of David Mitchell’s acclaimed novel Cloud Atlas.
The filmmakers have definitely assembled an interesting cast, made even more so by the fact that almost all of them are playing multiple characters in the film’s different timelines. Tom Hanks is an actor I always enjoy watching, and I’m interested to see how he plays all these different characters. Honestly, I’ve never been a fan of Halle Berry; she’s certainly a good actress, but the roles I’ve seen her in have just kind of annoyed me; but I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt that she might surprise me here. We briefly see Hugo Weaving – who I’m pretty sure has collaborated with the Wachowskis more than any other actor – firing a gun, and I’m pretty sure he’s playing the villain, which he always does well. Jim Sturgess and Doona Bae – who is making her English-language debut here – play characters who are a romantic pair in at least two of the timelines, although their story includes one of my big problems with the film, which I’ll get to later. Making a brief appearance as the record shop owner is Ben Whishaw, who is also playing Q in Skyfall. Also in the cast, but not seen here, are Keith David and Susan Sarandon, who I was hoping to see.
The visual aspects of the film really impress me, especially the different looks for the various timelines. The ship at sea looks amazing and completely real. For the dystopian future cityscape, the obvious point of comparison is Blade Runner (1982), but this is something much bigger and more extreme, with buildings hundreds of stories high and bridges spanning the steel canyons. Plus, I think that the hovercraft/planes that we briefly see look really cool. Finally, there’s the post-apocalyptic landscape, which actually looks quite beautiful, rather than ruined and destroyed.
Tom Hanks and Halle Berry in “Cloud Atlas.” Photo by Jay Maidment – © 2012 – Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
However, as cool as all this looks, I do have some problems with what I’m seeing. As cool as the whole multiple timelines concept is, it’s also the sort of thing that can become incredibly confusing if mishandled. And as I alluded to earlier, I feel uneasy about one element of the Jim Sturgess/Doona Bae storylines; namely, the fact that one has Jim Sturgess playing an Asian man, while the other has Doona Bae playing a Caucasian woman, both through the use of makeup. I’m probably overthinking it, but this makes me think of the days when Hollywood had white actors in blackface, yellowface, or redface. Does anyone else feel this way?
Ultimately, there’s two ways a film this ambitious and complex can go. It’ll either be mind-blowing or a completely pretentious mess. It has a great cast and some amazing visuals, but there are some issues that are keeping me from saying it’ll be awesome. But no matter how the final film turns out, I think it’s safe to say that come late October, all eyes in Hollywood will be on Cloud Atlas.
ANTICIPATION: I’m interested in seeing it, but I’ll definitely wait for the reviews first.
Release Date: October 26th, 2012
Starring: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, James D’Arcy, Xun Zhou, Keith David, David Gyasi, Susan Sarandon, and Hugh Grant
Directors: Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, and Andy Wachowski
Writers: Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, and Andy Wachowski
P.S. Another trailer that dropped this past week was the first one for the long-delayed Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. I’m hoping for a guilty pleasure action-horror film, and it looks like it might deliver in that regard. But the thing that stood out to me most, in a bad way, was that Jeremy Renner sounded really bored in his line readings. If they couldn’t find good takes for the trailer, what does that say for the actual movie?
Timothy Monforton
