Cloud Atlas

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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 3,180
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    Theshane wrote: »
    Just back from seeing this tonight and thought it was brilliant. It's a tad disorientating to begin with keeping track of the different strands, but after a while you get into the rhythm of it and don't notice the jumps.

    I'd have happily sat through another hour with more stories.
    It reminded me a little of 'Oh Lucky Man' with Malcolm McDowell with different folk playing different parts in make up.

    I found it the same, after the initial disorientation it flows effortlessly. I think it helps how the music and narration crosses over into the different stories. It was definitely a cinema experience unlike any I have had before.
  • circlebro2019circlebro2019 Posts: 17,560
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    saw this yesterday

    cant lie, i felt a bit dissapointed for first hour and half as it is kinda boring, the last hour is brilliant though

    just think its afilm that could have benefited from being 45 mins to a hour shorter

    alot of the stories are boring at first like slavery and old peoples home,but both are great by the end

    starts slow ends great
  • StansfieldStansfield Posts: 6,097
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    From what I can see from reviews like this

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvRXdzB9Ack

    And the comments on here I dont think I will get past the first 20mins - Seems too confusing to me :s
    Give it a go, you might be surprised.....It is one to see at the Cinema.
  • Si_CreweSi_Crewe Posts: 40,202
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    So, Cloud Atlas was one of the first films in ages that I've gone to see without really having a clue what it was about.

    After about half an hour I was starting to think that it was simply a series of artsy vignettes with no obvious cohesion.
    After another hour I was totally hooked and found it to be a compelling movie which would certainly deserve another 2 or 3 viewings to really spot all the stuff I missed first time around.

    I do have a question though...
    I got that there were links between some of the various stories.

    The techies in the far-future were inspired by Sonmi 459 from the near-future and Sonmi 459 was inspired by the clip of the movie written in the present by Cavendish, which ties together those parts of the movie.

    And then you've got Frobisher writing the Cloud Atlas back in the early 1900's (?) and then topping himself which leads to Sixsmith deciding to help Luisa Rey expose the scam with the nuclear power plant back in the 1970s which ties those parts together as well.

    That seems to suggest that there were two separate plot arcs and that the victorian/colonial era scenes weren't actually related to anything else in the movie at all.

    I realise that it's also about the idea that the same "souls" were faced with similar situations at different periods in history but the way that there ARE links between some of the arcs makes me wonder if there are also links between the other parts which I've missed.... or whether I'm simply looking for something which isn't there.
  • Virgil TracyVirgil Tracy Posts: 26,805
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    Si_Crewe wrote: »
    So, Cloud Atlas was one of the first films in ages that I've gone to see without really having a clue what it was about.

    After about half an hour I was starting to think that it was simply a series of artsy vignettes with no obvious cohesion.
    After another hour I was totally hooked and found it to be a compelling movie which would certainly deserve another 2 or 3 viewings to really spot all the stuff I missed first time around.

    I do have a question though...
    I got that there were links between some of the various stories.

    The techies in the far-future were inspired by Sonmi 459 from the near-future and Sonmi 459 was inspired by the clip of the movie written in the present by Cavendish, which ties together those parts of the movie.

    And then you've got Frobisher writing the Cloud Atlas back in the early 1900's (?) and then topping himself which leads to Sixsmith deciding to help Luisa Rey expose the scam with the nuclear power plant back in the 1970s which ties those parts together as well.

    That seems to suggest that there were two separate plot arcs and that the victorian/colonial era scenes weren't actually related to anything else in the movie at all.

    I realise that it's also about the idea that the same "souls" were faced with similar situations at different periods in history but the way that there ARE links between some of the arcs makes me wonder if there are also links between the other parts which I've missed.... or whether I'm simply looking for something which isn't there.

    in the 1930s sequence Ben Whishaw is reading the book which is the account of what happened in the 19th century sequence .

    there are a lot of little links , there's a line spoken which is from a courtroom tv drama which pops up several times , then of course there's the comet birthmark they all have .

    But basically it's the theme of slavery which links them all .
  • Si_CreweSi_Crewe Posts: 40,202
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    in the 1930s sequence Ben Whishaw is reading the book which is the account of what happened in the 19th century sequence.

    Was he?

    I honestly don't remember that at all! :eek:

    Just goes to show you that there really was so much going on that it deserves a 2nd or 3rd viewing before you really get a handle on all of it.
    But basically it's the theme of slavery which links them all .

    Must say, I didn't really get that from it.

    It seemed, to me, that it was more about how each of the characters played by a given actor found themselves in similar situations over and over at different times.
    Halle Berry was always the "investigator", Hugo Weaving was always the "enforcer", Hugh Grant was always the "manipulator" etc.

    I guess slavery was a recurring theme (in the colonial and near-future parts, at least) but it didn't feature in the rest of it and I didn't really see it as a "theme".
  • Virgil TracyVirgil Tracy Posts: 26,805
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    Si_Crewe wrote: »
    Was he?

    I honestly don't remember that at all! :eek:

    Just goes to show you that there really was so much going on that it deserves a 2nd or 3rd viewing before you really get a handle on all of it.



    Must say, I didn't really get that from it.

    It seemed, to me, that it was more about how each of the characters played by a given actor found themselves in similar situations over and over at different times.
    Halle Berry was always the "investigator", Hugo Weaving was always the "enforcer", Hugh Grant was always the "manipulator" etc.

    I guess slavery was a recurring theme (in the colonial and near-future parts, at least) but it didn't feature in the rest of it and I didn't really see it as a "theme".


    yeah , I guess 'slavery' would be too simple a term , but the issue was always about someone struggling against some form of oppression/inequality/ exploitation etc.

    as for the recurring actors , their are some links , but then again some actors play very different roles in each era , Jim Broadbent is the manipulator in one but the victim in another .

    I need to watch it again to see if I can spot a logic to the 'reincarnation' issue - if there's a karma involved , does someone suffer in the next life for what they did previously etc.

    also I didn't really get what Halle Berry was doing at that observatory thingy at the end .
  • Si_CreweSi_Crewe Posts: 40,202
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    also I didn't really get what Halle Berry was doing at that observatory thingy at the end .
    I think the idea was that, at some point between the near-future parts and the far-future parts, all the Sonmi 459 followers had managed to clear off to the stars and left Earth to the metaphorical "morlocks and elloi" and she was trying to contact them.

    All the way through the movie I was reminding myself that old Tom Hanks was relating the story with hindsight and then, at the end, he reveals that Earth is one of the distant stars in the sky, which suggests that Halle Berry was successful in using the way-station to contact a colony in the stars and the Somni 459 followers came and rescued all the techies from Earth.

    I suppose there's another example of slavery/oppression there too.
  • timebugtimebug Posts: 18,320
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    Sonmi 451 please NOT 459!
    A tongue in cheek reference
    to Bradbury's 'Farenheit 451'.
    Anyway Cloud Atlas is one of
    the best films I have ever seen
    and anyone who can't 'get it'
    is really missing out!
  • nattoyakinattoyaki Posts: 7,080
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    One of the most incredible films ever for me! (Despite the sometimes dodgy prosthetics!)

    If ever there was a book that was surely unfilmable it's Cloud Atlas, so for me they've accomplished what I thought impossible.

    Read the book twice, I didn't really 'get it' the first time, but second time it blew me away.

    Just like the book, each section would have made a great film in its own right. They had to leave out some great stuff but overall I don't think they could have done better in staying fairly faithful to the original stories.

    The way they made even more connections than in the book (with editing similar moments in different periods together) was mind-blowing. A number of times a voice-over spanned a couple of eras and was just as applicable to each. Genius.

    I'm glad I had read the book though - you get a lot more out of it I think. Some things were surprisingly unemphasised in the film, and it's a shame if people miss them.
    In particular the fact that Frobisher was reading Ewing's journal, the nature and importance of the Sixsmith report, and I blinked and missed the fact that they broadcast a mayday and were on a different planet at the end after being rescued. Other little things like the care home guy writing his story, which got turned into a film watched later by Sonmi.

    It also 'fixed' some of the things I didn't like about the book, and even the usual
    fix to 'happy' endings for all sections (except for Sonmi, but in the book she'd been betrayed and manipulated by controlled opposition, hadn't she, and in the film she wasn't - so a happier ending of sorts?)

    didn't grate.

    A stunning film and I'm going to see it again during the week. All-time classic.
  • Virgil TracyVirgil Tracy Posts: 26,805
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    one thing I didn't get - how did Timothy Cavendish sort his problems out with the Irish gangsters ?
  • ironjadeironjade Posts: 10,001
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    timebug wrote: »
    Sonmi 451 please NOT 459!
    A tongue in cheek reference
    to Bradbury's 'Farenheit 451'.
    Anyway Cloud Atlas is one of
    the best films I have ever seen
    and anyone who can't 'get it'
    is really missing out!

    What's to get? We're all connected? Big deal. See a few more movies.:)
  • nattoyakinattoyaki Posts: 7,080
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    one thing I didn't get - how did Timothy Cavendish sort his problems out with the Irish gangsters ?

    It was skipped (like many things), but that (imho) is one of the easier gaps one's imagination can fill in I think.
    ironjade wrote: »
    What's to get? We're all connected? Big deal. See a few more movies.:)

    Watch it again maybe if that's all you got from it? Or, if you're sure it's not for you, don't bother? :confused:
  • ErlangErlang Posts: 6,619
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    I finally got around to watching this, I wish I'd seen it at a cinema now. I really enjoyed it, and will be one of the few movies I can watch multiple times.
  • gothergother Posts: 14,655
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    Just watched this on Sky and i really enjoyed it.
  • RedSnapperRedSnapper Posts: 2,569
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    It was enjoyable but watching the making of doc I got the feeling they all thought it was a lot more clever than it actually was.
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