Cloud Atlas Was Voted The Worst Movie Of The Year, And That’s A Huge Mistake
With 2012 winding down, numerous outlets and critics got together to pick their best and worst of the year lists. Time magazine released their worst movies of 2012 picks, and topping it (or bottoming, as it were) was the most ambitious film of the year, the Wachowskis’ Cloud Atlas.
But was Cloud Atlas really the worst film of 2012? Sure, it failed to meet expectations, but man there were some out there that sure seemed to be way worse.
While some praised its vision of the future and audacious narrative structure, Cloud Atlas was a fascinating failure. To many viewers, the film never reached any higher than a cinematic gimmick with its reaching storyline and not-so-subtle themes and drama. It’s a movie written entirely in platitudes, giving sophisticated moviegoers headaches and casual audiences boring and emotionless moving images. But it’s by no means the worst movie of the year.
Compared to Cloud Atlas, Peter Berg’s Battleship was far more egregious with its mind-numbing action and lifeless acting from Taylor Kitsch and Brooklyn Decker. The film didn’t strive for much but still failed just to simply entertain anyone over the age of eight. Battleship was uninspired, silly, and clumsy, and should be considered the worst movie of 2012.
And that wasn’t all even for Taylor Kitsch. Another film starring Kitsch didn’t do well with critics and general audiences in 2012. Disney’s John Carter almost single-handedly ruined the reputation of an actor, a top-tier director (Andrew Stanton), and at the time, a movie studio (Disney).
If it wasn’t for Joss Whedon’s The Avengers, Disney would’ve been remembered for John Carter’s bloated budget and narrative instead of The Avengers’ $2 billion box office.
That movie was so bad that it ended up shifting Disney’s entire focus from then on. They got out of the sci-fi adaptation game and went back to where their bread ended up being buttered: comic book movies, Star Wars, and Disney live-action adaptations. Cloud Atlas wasn’t great, but it didn’t have these kinds of dramatic down-chain side effects when it was all said and done.
Cloud Atlas at least had an ambitious and imaginative concept spanning multiple storylines across 500 years, exploring themes of interconnectedness and how individual lives impact the whole. Sure, there was a convoluted narrative making it difficult to follow. It had great visuals and rather impeccable editing but it was pretentious and heavy-handed. So some good, a decent amount bad.
Overall, 2012 was a good year in science fiction. With its successes and failures, the genre saw good offerings with Prometheus, The Hunger Games, Looper, Chronicle, and Dredd.
We also had the biggest announcement of the year with Disney’s acquisition of the Star Wars franchise and Lucasfilm. Despite the year’s worst sci-fi movies such as Total Recall, Cloud Atlas, and Battleship, 2012 is still a year to remember for science fiction.
Check out Time’s Worst Films of 2012 list:
10. One For The Money
9. The Odd Life Of Timothy Green
8. What To Expect When You’re Expecting
7. Alex Cross
6. The Lorax
5. This Means War
4. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
3. Hyde Park On Hudson
2. John Carter
1. Cloud Atlas
