I just watched Cloud Atlas over the weekend - how did this movie get produced???

[Fritzo]

I'm pretty lenient on movies. Some are good, some aren't so good, but Cloud Atlas had me watching for nearly an hour and I STILL had no idea what the hell was going on. There were 5 or 6 separate stories moving back and forth from different time periods featuring the same characters (including Hugo Weaving in drag(!) at one point), and I guess the point was supposed to be the same souls will interact with each other for all time.

Three hours of total confusion, boredom, and a complete waste of time. The costumes and makeup were totally top notch, and it looks like this movie could have been a lot more than it was, it was just very poorly executed.

The only saving grace was a rather humorous vignette about a washed up author who gets rich after writing a book about a gangster friend who spontaneously throws a book reviewer out the window of a high-rise apartment after giving the reviewer a bad review.

This movie is so long, boring, and confusing the public needs to be alerted. Rated SA for Stay Away.

 

[slag]

I thought it was ok. It is about how our actions in the past affect the future and stuff like that.

 

[Pheran]

I just watched this as well, but I've read the book. The book is complex and wonderful, but I would have NEVER suggested that anyone try to make it into a movie. There's just too much going on for that. As a movie, Cloud Atlas fails because there's just too much story to cram into a movie, and because things get so compressed that you lose all the emotional connection to the characters that you'll get in the book.

If you've read the book, what they put on the screen isn't all bad - it's actually fairly faithful to the source material and it may be worth a watch just for the experience of seeing it on screen. But if you haven't read the book, I definitely do not recommend this movie, you won't know what the hell is going on.

TL;DR: Read the book instead, it's far better.

 

[Williz]

I didn't have a clue of what was going on and I've watched this twice still with no real understanding... and I;m not your average pleb. I'll read the book after I've finished all the Dune books by Frank which I imagine I'll enjoy a lot more.

 

[surfsatwerk]

I enjoyed it.

 

[SlitheryDee]

For some reason I enjoyed CA enough to watch it to the end, but I never was clear on what was being conveyed. I know what happened, but I'm not sure about what it all was supposed to mean. Maybe I should pick up the book.

 

[pontifex]

For some reason I enjoyed CA enough to watch it to the end, but I never was clear on what was being conveyed. I know what happened, but I'm not sure about what it all was supposed to mean. Maybe I should pick up the book.

Same here. I was thoroughly confused but I enjoyed what I saw.

 

[dyna]

Watch it with subtitles.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

I watched the movie for the first time last week and loved it. It's now one of my favorites. However, I read the Wikipedia article about it first which cleared up most of the confusion and made the movie sensible for me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_%28film%29

The six stories are connected by thin chronological threads where the actions of a character in a prior story have some sort of an effect, possibly a very minimal effect, on later stories. It's one of those pretentious pseudo-intellectual stories that would claim to have deeper meaning, but the deeper meaning isn't very profound. "Our actions affect other people's lives." That's not news. Supposedly it also tracks different souls as they are reborn over time.

I enjoyed the movie because I liked the stories and I think it is well-done, but in retrospect it doesn't really have much worthwhile philosophical content or deeper meaning. I agree with what Dyna said--watch it with subtitles. That will make the post-apocalyptic story (Tom Hanks primitive goat herder) more intelligible.

 

[vi edit]

Sounds like a movie similar to "The Fountain" which required a flowchart, a giant bowl of pot, and a Himilayan Mountain Guide to follow it.

 

[Kadarin]

Sounds like a movie similar to "The Fountain" which required a flowchart, a giant bowl of pot, and a Himilayan Mountain Guide to follow it.

That was my impression also when I watched it.

 

[destrekor]

Sounds like a movie similar to "The Fountain" which required a flowchart, a giant bowl of pot, and a Himilayan Mountain Guide to follow it.

I thought pot alone was enough to follow it. :biggrin:


But seriously, I think it's just because I enjoyed everything I saw so much, that I've now watched that movie at least half a dozen times. I still haven't watched it on my plasma, which I absolutely need to - that movie has dark scenes absolutely demanding a CRT or Plasma viewing experience.

That's why I love original Aronofsky films. His stories, and often his choice of soundtrack composer (and the resulting music) just make his movies such a joy to watch. Both The Fountain and Requiem for a Dream contain probably my favorite soundtracks of all times. Same composer was also responsible for awesomeness of the soundtrack for the movie Moon. Another great WTF movie, but not Aronofsky-WTF level.

After repeated viewings, The Fountain starts making a ton of sense - but it's purposefully vague to leave some things open to interpretation. That's sort of a trademark of his, it seems.

Aronofsky and Nolan are probably by favorite writer/directors. They make character stories that resonate so damn well, but do so with stories/plots that keep you engaged... also, most importantly, they have directorial abilities to match.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I really like Cloud Atlas. I think the progression of the different stories and their connections was really excellent. I just had to watch it twice to get everything.

 

[Drako]

That movie was about 2 hours too long.

 

[Skel]

I watched the movie for the first time last week and loved it. It's now one of my favorites. However, I read the Wikipedia article about it first which cleared up most of the confusion and made the movie sensible for me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(film)

The six stories are connected by thin chronological threads where the actions of a character in a prior story have some sort of an effect, possibly a very minimal effect, on later stories. It's one of those pretentious pseudo-intellectual stories that would claim to have deeper meaning, but the deeper meaning isn't very profound. "Our actions affect other people's lives." That's not news. Supposedly it also tracks different souls as they are reborn over time.

I enjoyed the movie because I liked the stories and I think it is well-done, but in retrospect it doesn't really have much worthwhile philosophical content or deeper meaning. I agree with what Dyna said--watch it with subtitles. That will make the post-apocalyptic story (Tom Hanks primitive goat herder) more intelligible.

Any movie that has required reading automatically fails with me. It's one of the current trends that's bothering me about movies. They should be self contained stories, and while sequels can build upon what came before, it shouldn't require you to know everything about the first one to understand what's going on. All the great movies knew this and didn't attempt to milk things.

 

[who?]

Is it anything like the Robin Williams movie "Being Human"?

 

[WHAMPOM]

I'm pretty lenient on movies. Some are good, some aren't so good, but Cloud Atlas had me watching for nearly an hour and I STILL had no idea what the hell was going on. There were 5 or 6 separate stories moving back and forth from different time periods featuring the same characters (including Hugo Weaving in drag(!) at one point), and I guess the point was supposed to be the same souls will interact with each other for all time.

Three hours of total confusion, boredom, and a complete waste of time. The costumes and makeup were totally top notch, and it looks like this movie could have been a lot more than it was, it was just very poorly executed.

The only saving grace was a rather humorous vignette about a washed up author who gets rich after writing a book about a gangster friend who spontaneously throws a book reviewer out the window of a high-rise apartment after giving the reviewer a bad review.

This movie is so long, boring, and confusing the public needs to be alerted. Rated SA for Stay Away.

Reincarnation with interaction of reborn souls working out some group Karma to rise to a higher level. In other words "same old same old."

 

[TXHokie]

Sounds like a movie similar to "The Fountain" which required a flowchart, a giant bowl of pot, and a Himilayan Mountain Guide to follow it.

Thanks for the warning there. The Fountain was a big "WTH did I just see" after I got done with it.

 

[SlickSnake]

I liked it. But it's one of those movies like Southland Tales that needs to be watched at least twice to figure out everything that's going on.

The most annoying part was trying to understand Tom Hanks and the rest of them when they were speaking that gibberish English slang. Turning captions on would certainly help during those scenes.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I had no idea what the fuc* was going on either, and that's a "True True" lol

 

[Harabec]

Wow, you weaklings...
I know that a lot of people have problems following multiple timelines. For me it is simple and straightforward and I loved the movie right from the start.
Some liked it after watching it twice.

 

[MrSquished]

I really enjoyed that movie. It was visually stunning and most of the stories were really good. It was like watching a series of very good short stories, across time, that became a part of a longer narrative on karma and reincarnation and things of that nature.

 

[Fritzo]

Wow, you weaklings...
I know that a lot of people have problems following multiple timelines. For me it is simple and straightforward and I loved the movie right from the start.
Some liked it after watching it twice.

 

[hans030390]

I can see why most wouldn't like it. It's more about the underlying "message" of how we're all connected throughout time, even if in the slightest ways. The individual stories in and of themselves could be fairly interesting as well, especially when prior stories directly impact future stories.

I didn't have a clue of what was going on and I've watched this twice still with no real understanding... and I;m not your average pleb. I'll read the book after I've finished all the Dune books by Frank which I imagine I'll enjoy a lot more.

Everyone thinks they're not "your average pleb," but the truth is that most people are just fooling themselves when they say that.

 

[destrekor]

Everyone thinks they're not "your average pleb," but the truth is that most people are just fooling themselves when they say that.

When everyone says their not the average pleb, things get confusing, because it tends to leave no one to be the average pleb.
Thus, all those "not your average pleb" have now become the new average. Funny how that works.