Cloud Atlas

[huntergrayson]

Thought it merited its own thread because there are SO MANY THINGS TO DISCUSS.

Thoughts? Anyone read the book? I don't even know where to begin.

[Deleted]

I've not read the book, but it's on my list. I enjoyed the movie. On a superficial level, it was kind of fun playing spot-the-actor in the various segments. I didn't do very well at that. When the credits rolled up there were various times people made noises of shock. Particularly with Hugh Grant, it seemed like he was in heavy make-up which rendered him unrecognizable for a lot of his screen time.

[bklynred]

I couldn't handle it. I spent too much time figuring out how the threads connected.

I also overheard a viewer say that the "after the fall" speak sounded like Jar Jar Binks, and I agree.

[LAX]

I read the book and enjoyed it. Based on reviews I was going to hold off on the movie until it was available for streaming or in a cheap theater but a well intentioned friend knew I liked the book so bought me a ticket.

It was better than I expected. Some deviations from the book but not enough to ruin it for me. Adam and Robert's parts were my favorite. Timothy's were supposed to be slightly comedic I think, but they came off as farcical. Luisa's were okay. Sonmi herself was good, but her supporting actors and parts of the story that changed from the book weakened her part for me, except the part where she sees the fate of her fellow fabricants, which was chilling. (but one part of my head was giggling at the same time because I could also hear Timothy running across the lawn yelling "soylent green is people!!!" Most changed was Zachary's story, which wasn't terrible because it still got the story across, but didn't much care for the cosmic ending and that he and Meronym became a couple. For that matter, the little love twists in each of the story weren't as large in the books and I'm not sure why they amplified love as a theme in this.

The worst part was all the actors playing across races or gender. I'm sure the actors enjoyed the challenge it just made it seem absurd. The white actors playing Asians reminded me of the aliens in Galaxy Quest and I simply couldn't take their scenes seriously.

While the slaves referred to in Adam's story were Polynesian they made them African in the movie. Not sure why. Perhaps to avoid getting into complicating the film with the back story of Maori enslaving Moriori?

[Mugsy]

Book first or movie first?

[LAX]

I think book first. The people I know who've seen it without reading the book were lost, found it difficult to follow, or thought it was too much to take in.

[Deleted]

Nov 1, 2012 12:22:55 GMT -4 LAX said:

I think book first. The people I know who've seen it without reading the book were lost, found it difficult to follow, or thought it was too much to take in.

I didn't read the book, and I didn't have any trouble following the movie. I'd say that if you find movie like Inception hard to follow (I personally didn't) then yes, you should probably read the book first.

[LAX]

good point, roisin. now that you mention it, the people I know who had trouble with the movie also had trouble with Inception. I didn't struggle with Inception at all so I wonder I would have viewed the movie if I hadn't read the book first?

[huntergrayson]

Obviously, this film did *something* right because I find myself and my friends thinking about it and discussing/debating it more than anything in a long while rather than just forgetting about five seconds after it was over.

Despite my admiration of the technical prowess of Inception/Nolan, it has absolutely zero emotional resonance for me whatsoever. None. This was a technical mess in a lot of ways, but it 'clicked' emotionally on a lot of levels and in a lot of the storylines.

The after the fall sequence was not one of them until the very, very very end. It should have been trimmed WAAAAAAAY back. The language was stupid - and it was very jarring to keep coming back to it after having sequences in English. It would be totally weird if Hugo Weaving just straight up broke into Elvish during the 2012 sequence, right? But this was equally weird and confusing.

Also, given the language barrier, I never quite got a grasp on Evil Leprechaun Possibly Imaginary Gollum Weaving in that sequence.

Huge problem: Hanks as the lead. I saw nothing but Hanks, every time. His Irish gangster was absolutely laughable.

I thought the editing was very well done. Some of the transitions/reveals between the universes or timelines actually made me gasp out loud. One of my favorites was the flooding of Neo-Seoul becoming the water rushing into Luisa Ray's car.

[Deleted]

Also, given the language barrier, I never quite got a grasp on Evil Leprechaun Possibly Imaginary Gollum Weaving in that sequence.

I think he was supposed to be a manifestation of Satan or something like that. As fun as it was watching Hugo Weaving ham it up, I didn't really understand the point of that character.

Huge problem: Hanks as the lead. I saw nothing but Hanks, every time. His Irish gangster was absolutely laughable.

THIS. So much. He can't do accents for shit, and it seemed like he wasn't really trying. His brief bits in the Luisa Rey and Sonmi 451 sections were the best of his parts. The 1849 section wasn't too bad, but still way to hammy for my taste.