10 Movies Directors Didn't Want You To Understand

Though the Wachowskis' ambitious sci-fi epic tanked at the box office, it was nevertheless well-received by critics and has since developed a cult following.

But it's easy to see why, despite its all-star cast and gorgeous visual effects, Cloud Atlas failed to impress the mainstream, given its off-the-wall narrative spanning six different time periods.

While it's clear that much of the story is rooted in the notion of past lives, much like Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain it can't be interpreted too literally in that vein because the narrative threads don't all neatly slot together.

The movie's tagline, "Everything is connected," offers up the most salient distillation of the movie's primary theme, that though you might not understand quite how everyone relates to one another, it's an immutable law of nature if not physics that humanity is bound inseparably. Or something.

It is a $150 million blockbuster which begs the audience to feel rather than think, which while undeniably bold for a lush studio tentpole, was a predictable dud with the popcorn-gobbling crowds.