Cloud Atlas

[canadian_turtle]

Hmmm, quite a big spoiler here ↑

I spoiler tagged my explanation before but as everyone started discussing without a tag after my post I figured it was alright

[Celini]

The spoiler was not coming from you c_t; it jut happened to be the last post. I clicked on the discussion to see how people rated it and I am quite sure I read something I would not have wanted to read before seeing the film.

we always use spoiler tags for this purpose, I don't understand why it was not in use here.

[canadian_turtle]

Even so, just because others don't use tags doesn't mean I shouldn't either, I'll edit my post to change this

And also, sorry you were spoiled, but on the upside, you might be able to understand the film better than others now who went in knowing nothing about it!

[jcolombi]

I really enjoyed this, I thought it was visually amazing and the 6 stories were good, although during the film I was trying to connect all the pieces like a puzzle.

Thanks c_t for clearing up the film... It's hard to give a rating because it was so different and ambitious.. but I will give it an 8/10

[Celini]

And also, sorry you were spoiled, but on the upside, you might be able to understand the film better than others now who went in knowing nothing about it!

well, I don't think I'll have the courage to watch 3 hours of this anyway

[martadelas]

Beautiful. I thought the movie was beautiful, the stories were very moving and now I'm doomed until I read the book. Even though I have not read it before seeing the movie and I have not read any reviews, I had no problem finding the connections and following the stories (I guess years of crime novel reading pa*d off as far as spotting the clues, lol).
I think this is going to be one of those movies you either hate or love. I'm in the love camp, as I really appreciated the message and I enjoyed the intricacy of the picture. And interestingly, as worried as I was, the three hours just went by as quickly as 1, 2, 3 (4, 5, 6).

Solid 9/10

[Beate]

This is a film that stays with you for quite some time, in my case at least. I was still thinking about it at bedtime trying to make sense of things and fell asleep during story 3. As I said before, I had some trouble at first trying to figure out what connected all those stories as on the face of it they were all so different but some of the explanations helped and I also think the topic of freedom played a big part. I still don't quite like the weird last story and it would have helped much more if the stories hadn't been so interspliced, hopping backwards and forwards and sometimes still hearing sound from one story while looking at another. What bothered me that there didn't seem to be any evolvement of either the characters or the world over time (with oppression and wars still going on in the future), and I also think this could have been told in less time, even though there were 6 stories involved, as some of them felt drawn out.

[canadian_turtle]

I have so many thoughts and feelings about this film, I don't know where to start! I'll divide my review by the six different parts of the overall story:

The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing: My least favourite part of the novel as it's rather dull, but made a lot better in the movie by 1) it being Jim Sturgess (<3) 2) it really being rather short and to the point. The final scene with the father-in-law was also more poignant by flicking back and forth between that and the Sonmi story.

Letters from Zedelghem: Why of why did this story get entirely rewritten for the movie?!?! For one in doesn't actually take part in Zedelghem anymore but Edinburgh instead (which doesn't really make sense as Vivian's wife still has a Dutch name), and two they completely changed the reason why Frobisher at the end [spoiler]kills himself.[/spoiler] And even though the viewer sees what happened to the second half of Ewing's journals, I don't think Frobisher actually finds it in the end? Such a shame. Having said that, Ben Wishaw was astonishing in the role and really made me love the character much more than I did in the novel. And Sixsmith just broke my heart.

Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery: One of my two favourite parts of the novel and still very good in the film. Again there were some changes I do not understand (why they omitted the locker scene for instance as well as the evil Hugh Grant character b*ying out Luisa's magazine to fire her) but the essence remained. It is a shame they didn't reveal the importance of the rapport until the end of the story as I can understand why viewers would be confused by this. LOVED how they included Javier's voice to provide the "mystery" part of the title and also implied he wrote the manuscript that landed on Timothy Cavendish's desk, which I don't recall happens in the novel.

The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish: A rather dull and seemingly insignificant part of the book (in comparison to the other stories at least) made a million times better in the film. Provided some much needed laughs between tense scenes (I'm still giggling when thinking about "pussy") and had a really sweet ending.

An Orison of Sonmi~451: My absolutely favourite part of the story. So complex and so f**ked up. I'm really disappointed they omitted at least half of the story which explains much more how that particular time period was put together and the immense impact that the changing of this one particular fabricant had on society (and how special she really was and how she became that special). We didn't even get to see any other fabricants that looked completely different from Sonmi (there are some really cool ones) and they also completely ignored the major mindfuck at the end of the story which reveals that in actual fact there is no [spoiler]rebellious Union, but this was all just set up by the current government to create a fake enemy that will ensure that fabricants will remain "slaves" but that she knew this all along and that by standing up for what she believes in and telling the people she's already changing their minds.[/spoiler]FYI Jim Sturgess makes for a very hot Asian!

Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After: This part is really creepy and more more so in the book than in the film, particularly the tribesmen (though they did go a bit overboard with "Old Geordie" int he film). I personally loved the language used and got used to it quite easily (it's the same in the novel). In fact it reminded me that all 6 parts had their own distinctive voice, which unfortunately didn't come across as much on screen as it did in writing. Maybe I missed it, but in the film did they ever explain WHY Meronym was staying with the villagers? Because I don't think they do though it's told in the book. Also, I have no idea why this wasn't [spoiler]set on earth[/spoiler] as I thought it was in the novel? (in fact they mention Hawaii in the novel which is supposedly where the fabricants in An Orison of Sonmi~451 go after they receive their 12 stars.


It's a shame so many people got confused by the use of the same actor for different roles and the not too clear connection between the characters [spoiler](which is the comet shaped birth mark on the 6 main characters).[/spoiler] I think having read the book and being able to fill in any missing gaps (and know instantly who the characters were without having to get used to them) really helped me to just focus on the magnificence of this enormously ambitious film which spans different genres and times giving each one a distinct feel and look (which also explains why there were multiple directors as they each had their own specialities). Also, the actors were extraordinary in all their parts (I didn't even spot all of their "versions", so it's well worth waiting for the credits to see what roles each actor portrayed) though Hugo Weaving in the nursing home was a bit too ridiculous and may have distracted the viewer away from the story.

I personally think the movie could've been improved by:

1) Not going back and forth between the various story arcs so much. The book tells the stories in two parts each and in chronological order (with the middle bit about Zachry being told in a single part) which makes it much more clear.

2) Split the story into at least 2 movies. This would open up more time to spend on the individual stories to explain eg. the Luisa Rey rapport and the Sonmi revolution and not just focus on how everything is connected and actions ripple through time.

Overall, 9.5/10 - amazing, but not perfect and it certainly stays with you, which is quite an achievement nowadays.

[Yinster]

I thought I understood the film but I think the red herring for me is that

[spoiler]I thought the actors played the same souls reincarnated throughout the ages. But now you saying about the comet birthday mark meant the it is the same soul which means more sense. Ach well. I did try. Perhaps they should had it more simple for people like me to have the same actor/actress played the same soul instead of different people.[/spoiler]

[The Sparrow]

Thanks for this summary c_t you answered one question that I came here to ask; how the book was written but now I know I wonder why the film was made as it was. The film is beautiful and ambitious and maybe they wanted it to be seen as a totally different kind of film but it can be rather confusing at times although I did get in to it flitting from story to story.

Thanks also for providing the names of each story, I would have loved to have known this too during the film.

As for the language used in Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After, I would think reading it would be far easier than hearing it in a film where regular language is also used. My ear just couldn't attune to it.

What I don't understand is why in these days of technological advances,prosthetics used are just so bad. I found myself concentrating on the makeup at times more than the acting just as I did in J. Edgar.