This would easily be among the worst movies I have ever seen. Really surprised to see the nice words here. An abomination — a hysterical, inane mess and bizarre pseudo-intellectual flimsy-liberal-politics new age wet dream. The pidgin scenes, removed from the film, will be a source of youtube hilarity for all.
Last edited by filmy; 11-03-2012 at 11:25 PM.
LOL, filmy. Tell us how you really feel.
Although I enjoyed the movie a lot (much more than the book, actually), it does have a high cheese factor. And large segments of Sloosha's Crossin' kept reminding me of Lord of the Rings - just substitute Kona for Uruk-hai. Also, too much earnest speechifying in the second half (though the book was even worse on that). But some sections were lovely and powerful. Frobisher worked so much better for me when played by Whishaw - I really couldn't find any way to empathize with his self-absorbed dickishness in the book. Seeing him with Sixsmith in a couple of scenes helped humanize him (and they did excise some of his more disgusting qualities). Broadbent made Cavendish bearable, and even funny. Most of all, I was able to fall in love with Sonmi, whereas Mitchell's writing had kept her at arm's length for me.
In fact, Mitchell's stylized literary flourishes, while impressive, seemed to distance me from all the characters. But as soon as the film started I was immediately drawn in and hooked. So I'd say they did a good job with extremely difficult material. I'd also agree that it's ripe for parody.
Love it, in spite of all.
I'm surprised that so many people were on the fence about this one. I thought it was an incredibly compelling project, powerfully important, and the performances were shockingly good. I hope this has a shot at getting SAG Ensemble recognition as well, because the character work was astounding. I saw someone else post that Hugo Weaving was best-in-show and I totally agree, though he is in a fine company. I feel like people must have had a difficult time putting some of the pieces together, so they took a torch to it. Films like this deserve to be made because they have the ability to educate and invigorate the soul. I wish it the best. I'd certainly vote for it.
My favorite film of the year thus far. I found it exciting, engaging, and breathtakingly beautiful. The cast was uniformly terrific (Doona Bae was the standout for me and will likely be showing up in my end of year awards, though I thought everyone turned in fine work). I'm interested to see how well this does in the tech categories, where you can be sure it'll show up a lot and win some. I'd also love to see it in Picture/Director/Screenplay.
Also, I'm really glad that I read the book first. I thought that the book and the film complimented each other well and one enriched the enjoyment of the other.
Top Ten Films of 2012
I thought this was simply profound.
I enjoyed the book earlier in the year, but found the author to be too coy and playful about his own narratives, at times being too clever for the good of his story. The film corrects these problems while leaving much of the underlying content in place.
One thing I loved about Cloud Atlas is the way that its separate tales vary to such a great extent in their importance. The Cavendish section, for instance, is simply the tale of how an old man breaks out of a seniors' residence to find his old love. And Frobisher's tale, while emotionally powerful, is ultimately a story of how a would-be famous composer never became famous. Compared to the incomplete narrative how Sonmi and how she somehow becomes a revered God, it's amazing how different they are. But that's the point, of course, and though the film, like the book, is full of dialogue about the connections between the past, present and future, the filmmakers never make obvious how that still holds true despite the uneven scope of the different tales.
Ultimately the whole thing is just an emotional, sort of spiritual version of the old adage about the butterfly and the stock market, but it works so well. These people, though they muse about their place in the world, and at times their own individual places in history, never end up seeing how their place actually is defined. But they have a feeling that there is something better coming, something that will make it all okay, and that uplifting atmosphere is something the Wachowskis and Tykwer added in. The book was much colder overall than this, and the many little changes were welcome; the coda in particular, was mind-blowing.
In a way, Cloud Atlas is as revolutionary a film as the Wachowskis' V for Vendetta; it's a cry to the viewer to realize that they are part of something greater than themselves and to live their life accordingly. And it punts the idea of religion and moral codes in favour of a more generic but ultimately more satisfying spiritualism; cloud Atlas suggests that we do not need to understand our connection to the world around us to live happily with the awareness OF that connection. We just need to feel it to know it is there, and then to live our life, trusting that whatever will happen will happen whether we see it or not.
I quite loved this.
Last five movies seen:
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) **
Valhalla Rising (2009) ** 1/2
Young Adult (2011) *
How I Ended This Summer (2010) *1/2
Biutiful (2010) **1/2
filmy, have you read the book? The thing is that I also felt as I said earlier, that in the movie the characters and story seems to be reduced to action/adventure, caricatured characters and at that level it does not work. This must be more problematic for people who have not read the book. Because in my case at least, I was able to fill lot of details and can appreciate somethings consciously and unconsciously as I knew the book (the good and better intentions behind what was going on the screen)
I saw this a couple of weekends ago and it's taken quite some time for me to process it all!
It's obviously a very outstanding, thought-provoking, and mind-bending piece of cinema, full of ideas, but also of humanity and humor and wit and a endless fascination with the world and the people that temporarily inhabit it. It was simultaneously one of the most dramatic and tense and yet most hilarious and oddball movies I've ever had the chance to see in my life. Cavendish's story is probably my favorite, just for the hilariously absurd nature of it, but also because of what great and majestic impact his throwaway line is able to have on Sonmi. "I will not be subjected to criminal abuse!" Indeed.
The entire cast was just out-of-this world and so multidimensional and eclectic. The audience I was with just sat in utter amazement at the ending credits where they reveal just how many characters each of the main performers played. I know some might think of all of the make-up effects as being ridiculous and unnecessary, but, dear god, I think it creates such a uniquely exciting and engaging experience it has to be considered worthwhile.
I loved this completely.
WE'RE GONNA FIGHT!
This weekend...one last chance to save Halle's career from complete oblivion. Oh, wait...
"...it's already done."
#THECALL.
I've seen it two times in two consecutive days. I really liked it the first time, loved it the second one.
I HATED this.
Ugh.
Me too; glad I'm not the only one who did.Originally Posted by guany
The only redeeming quality of the film was that early scene of Ben Whishaw and James D'Arcy in bed. Now I could watch a three hour movie just about that.
Completely agree with that as well.The only redeeming quality of the film was that early scene of Ben Whishaw and James D'Arcy in bed. Now I could watch a three hour movie just about that.
T E A M R I V E T T E
Enjoyed this a lot. Probably reading the book a few years ago helped. The stories weren't fresh in my mind, but it was easy to keep it all more or less sorted and I liked how they jumbled the stories rather than ordering them sequentially as in the book. The film has a much lighter tone, which I didn't mind, and I was surprised how often I laughed out loud. It came off as a bit of pop-metaphysics but I like how much it played around and didn't take itself too seriously.
My only criticism is that some of the chase scenes went on too long, those were the only parts of the film that dragged, never the dialogue.
I would never have guessed how much fun this was to see. I enjoyed the book but it was a bit of a slog and I was much more interested in some stories than others. With the film I was engaged the whole way through.
Standout performer for me was Broadbent. And I enjoyed the couples: Frobisher and Sixsmith; Somni and Hae-Joo Chang; and Meronym and Zachry.
And David Gyasi
This. I weep for what was cut to make room for what was pretty by-the-numbers in how both Tykwer and the Wachowski's handled them.
T E A M R I V E T T E
Of course it was.The only redeeming quality of the film was that early scene of Ben Whishaw and James D'Arcy in bed. Now I could watch a three hour movie just about that.
* granted, I'd pay to watch three hours of naked Ben Whishaw** in a heartbeat.
** the only thing "Skyfall" was missing to make it a truly amazing movie.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION - INOCA 2012
...still not over the yellow face. Utterly unacceptable.
Get the fuck over it.
Every race is playing another race.
T E A M R I V E T T E
Guys!!!! i make this review. it told a wonderful story.
enjoy!
It was too much of a mess to have any true impact. The good intentions are very much appreciated so are the visuals. Definitely a grand effort. Too bad it doesn't cohere not that an adaptation of that book was ever meant to. Honestly, I don't think it's meant to be taken seriously. It's a big mess with a heart of gold. It's the science fiction version of Magnolia.
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