Westside Steve Posted November 19, 2012 Report Share Posted November 19, 2012 Cloud Atlas Warner Brothers R 164 min Well they certainly spent a lot of time and money to promote this one. It was supposed to be the philosophical and cinematic landmark of a generation. And, as the ads proclaimed, it was from the same group did gave us THE MATRIX. Hmmm. As I recall I was somewhat interested in the first MATRIX but thought the series went into the tank pretty damn quickly. And before you attack me, I don't think Keanu Reeves was responsible for the downfall. CLOUD ATLAS stars Tom Hanks who, while being somewhat overrated, isn't the film pariah that Reeves is. Hanks plays various roles here, none especially outstanding. CLOUD ATLAS Is actually a batch of stories intermingled in a way as to suggest they are relevant to each other in some grand concept. It should only take about 20 minutes to realize that the special effects, while pretty good, are nothing earth shaking. I had that same epiphany about the story and the grand concept after perhaps an hour. The common thread among this slightly pretentious series of vignettes seems to be that life is a never ending thing and that our lives weave themselves through that endless in a continuum. . Or something. Here are some of the themes present in this potpourri. Much like Kurt Vonnegut's Billy Pilgrim these tales appear to be unstuck in time. There is an unscrupulous book publisher who finds himself in Dutch with some loan sharks. After burning many bridges to financial help he turns to his brother who winds up committing him to an oppressive old folks home. In a BLADE RUNNER-esque world replicants, bio engineered robots that seem human, are manufactured to be servings and apparently sex slaves. When one of them begins to think for herself she becomes integral to a revolution supposedly meant to bring equality to the others among other things. In 1970's era San Francisco a young writer for a rock newspaper will become embroiled in an expose of the evil oil companies and assume the mantle of crusader just like her famous journalist father. Serving as a liaison for his father's 19th century slave trade empire a young man will end up befriending one of those slaves and abandons his father's wicked business. As his primitive Village is devastated by marauders a man will bond with a woman from an advanced society on a planet far far away. A gay musical prodigy has been hired to assist a well known but aging and cantankerous composer. A piece that begins as a collaboration will turn in to a masterpiece by the younger man. Sadly his sexual preferences make him a target of blackmail and his life's work never sees the light of day in the manner that it should. That work, by the way is called Cloud Atlas. Actually all of these little morality plays are interesting enough even though the great convergence at the end seems to be something of a letdown, especially after two and a half hours to tee it up. I think I had expected all of these stories to converge and a spectacular climax, but they don't really. And the grand concept that life flows on in stream is a little bit sophomoric, but not completely uninteresting. Don't misunderstand, this is still a worthy project even if it is a bit long and slightly pretentious. B- WSS Email westsidesteve@aol.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BadNewsBrowns Posted January 4, 2013 Report Share Posted January 4, 2013 B- is a little generous for me. As you said,started off interesting and about 45 minutes or so into you begin waiting for the plot and all the stories to eventually collide into some kind of universal plot but it never happens. If not for Hanks no one would bother to see this movie. Looked like they used play-dough for makeup. D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombo Posted June 4, 2013 Report Share Posted June 4, 2013 Don't misunderstand, this is still a worthy project even if it is a bit long and slightly pretentious. B- WSS Yes, agreed. Saw it the other night, it was worthy and thought provoking ... but still a bit of a letdown. could have been more. And I agree with BNB on the makeup ... with all the technological advances in the world, we still have no idea on how to make a Caucasian look like an Asian. Z Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miktoxic Posted June 25, 2013 Report Share Posted June 25, 2013 i rented it on pay per view and sorry, couldn't make it past the first hour and turned it off. when asked if we wanted to replay it the next day as to maybe better understand what was going on my girlfriend said no which i completely agreed. when watching the trailer for the movie, i thought that these vignettes were to setup (like someone said above) some big climatic realization that these characters' souls were reborn into other people and the movie some how played it forward, if you will....but it didn't take long to figure out the only thing i could and that was that it wasn't going to end like that. forgive me for being a 'regular' movie goer who goes above and beyond to appreciate cinematography and style but when the story falls out from under me i could care less how good or not it looks. i thought the black slave, who was saved by the kid...that that story was connected to another one of vignettes where one of characters would realize or get a sense that the other main character in that part of the movie had done good by them in the past (or for that matter bad by them) and either extend gratitude or seek revenge in some way. sorry, couldn't connect the dots. no grade. didn't have the wind for the mental marathon. btw, it's probably just me because it took me about 3 tries to understand the matrix. the animated 'animatrix' did more to help me understand the original than what anyone could explain to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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