Is anyone as excited as I am to see Cloud Atlas opening this weekend???

I'm going next week for better seats!

They actually have really bad release dates for some movies here in Australia... I was actually so pumped to watch this at the cinema until discovering that it will be just faster to wait for the blu-ray...

just saw it (thanks to a pre-release screening). it's not that great to be honest. way too many characters, way too many uninteresting stories, way too many ... well everything.

the make up is amazing at times but often, it flat out sucks. the best part of the movie is the credits when they reveal who was what. some are obvious. others not so much.

i was never invested in the film. and that's a huge problem. it sets out to do a lot, but falls short. props for trying something different, but i just didn't care about the movie.

this is one film where the whole is actually better than its parts.

Quoted from albinopenguin it's not that great to be honest. way too many characters, way too many uninteresting stories, way too many ... well everything. this is one film where the whole is actually better than its parts.

Well, that's disappointing.  

Who would like this film?
"If you liked _________ or ________ you might like CLOUD ATLAS"

It ain't no MATRIX, is it?  

*Sigh* Now I dunno if I may wait for redbox to get it! Was really hoping for something big...something different...the trailer looked good.

The trailer looked extremely confusing and complicated. After watching it I had no clue what it was about. Might be good though, although I have an inkling it will be full of artistic flourishes and famous people.  

Quoted from Pale Yellow *Sigh* Now I dunno if I may wait for redbox to get it! Was really hoping for something big...something different...the trailer looked good.

You shouldn't be swayed by someone else review of a film as a reason to see, or not see it. Film is a subjective experience.

This looks like a very ambitious project, with similar philosophical themes to The Matrix and meaning of life also explored.

Eoin...yeah...guess you are right! I may love it I just want something different and it had that 'feel' ...

I've heard only half of the SIX FULL PLOTLINES are better than half baked.
Like nex tto nothing relevant happens in the 1950s scenes at all.
Eye candy can only cover up inadequacies like that for so long.
And the running time here is pretty mammoth.

Kudos for aspiring to be more than a blockbuster.
But with this budget, some studio consideration might've helped out.
Even though I'm pretty sure this one's independently financed.

E.D.

it's really hard to say who would like this movie. to be honest, story wise, it's unlike anything i've seen before. it's almost like those s hitty valentine day/new year's eve movies but more dramatic with a sci fi twist.

and yes, don't see/ignore the film based on my review. but it's no where close to the matrix. theme wise, it's actually pretty shallow. i felt like the trailer was more impactful than the film. we're all connected. okay, great.

but here's the thing. the actors who portray a hero in one story line arent always the hero in another. sometimes they're the villian. so their threads really don't make sense. it's like an eddie murphy film where the protag dresses up like several other characters.

the futuristic storyline is reminiscent of the matrix and its themes. but it isnt the matrix. it just made me want to go rewatch the matrix instead.

but overall, i just didnt feel invested in any of the characters. none are really that likable. and i've always felt like hanks was a bit overrated.

redbox this one folks. or go see it. but don't set your expectations too high. mine were reasonable and i was still let down.

Edit: now that i think about it, it kind of reminded me of The Hours but with double the story lines and sci fi mixed in.

Hmm... sounds rather PROMETHEUS-like: Lotta potential. Doesn't deliver.

yeah Prometheus is a good comparison. but 2/3's of the movie really isnt sci fi. only two out of the six actually involve anything sci fi related.

I think people are seeing the story line from the future and thinking that's the entire film. it's disappointing because it's not. and that particular story line, albet aesthetically pleasing, isn't too deep. we kind of know where it's headed.

prometheus is a much better film IMO

OMG, then I'll wait for the spill.com review and maybe/likely the DVD.
Appreciate the headzup.

I am really glad I know you all. This is huge for our agency because we have a picture along these lines that is an action dramedy so for me; YAY. you guyz are AWESOME! bb

You're awesome too, Babz

Hugz

I loved this, one of the best movies of 2012 in my opinion.

Actions sequences were great, loved the Somni and Apocalyptic storyline.

Hugo Weaving dressed up as a woman is a must see.

Although Keith David as a Korean man made me lol a little too hard.

My husband got up and walked out in the first fifteen minutes of this but I cannot wait to see it when it comes out on Redbox Some say great..some say terrible.

I caught this a couple weeks back but missed the thread.
This is a movie I really wanted to like, but ultimately didn't buy into.

I was struck by the sameness of multiple plotlines.
For me, they took the interconnectedness thing too far.
Much like Inception for me, there were "layers" here that didn't interest me.

My biggest problem was Hugo Weaving.
I couldn't stand that sneering Wonderland reject again and again.
Is that the best way you can manifest human fears? Irked me to death.

I really do think everyone's trying hard.
And quite a brave tale in many ways, but it didn't gel for me in the end.

I wanted to be in love with its story as much as its sunny message for humanity.

E.D.

Bit disappointed to see no love for this film. And with all respect, very little compelling explanation as to why it was supposedly not too special. That's not to suggest that criticism is unwarranted, but to highlight the hitherto dearth of quality criticism present. There will, however, be no attempt by me to counter that with scintillating and insightful commentary on why I believe it to be so damn good.

This level of ambitious filmmaking - fully successful or not in its finished product - is to be encouraged and nurtured. Hollywood is often criticsed - rather reflexively and naively - by people who do not understand it's a business and that its products are loved by millions of people the world over. Does that fact absolve Hollywood of the many examples of rubbish it throws our way each year? No, of course not, but to complain about its supposedly homogeneous output and then, on the other hand, flippantly dismiss its attempts - like Cloud Atlas - to do something different is perplexing to me. Perplexing and vexing!

The Wachowskis (and Twyker!) have crafted a unique, spellbinding and masterful film that's so bold, so visionary and so ambitious, writers should try and dissect its capacity to explore themes so dense and impenetrable for 99.9% of us to even consider tackling.

Oh, and sorry B-boy, but Hugo was magnificent! Even if his performance was largely a retread of "Mr. Anderson". If you've gota great party trick, there's sometimes no shame in endlessly regurgitating it.

On a side note, Neo Seoul made me desperately wish these boys were taking on Star Wars.

Quoted from Andrew Oh, and sorry B-boy, but Hugo was magnificent! Even if his performance was largely a retread of "Mr. Anderson". If you've gota great party trick, there's sometimes no shame in endlessly regurgitating it.

Seems you liked it for EXACTLY the same reasons I loathed it.
Something so derivative in a film that prides itself on being different.
It was so out of place here, I couldn't wait for him to be off screen.
Save the shameless regurgigation for the studio produced tentpoles!

And don't call me B-boy.  

E.D.

Yes, it would certainly appear we appreciate the EXACT opposite, B-boy.

Like many, I too was looking forward to this, but never made it when it was showing at the theater.  damn good move, Jeffrey!

I attempted to watch the Bluy Ray on Saturday with my girlfriend, as I figured it was something she'd appreciate, as she hates my horror movies with a passion.

Well...let's just say she was asleep within 25 minutes after rolling her eyes for 23 minutes.  After an hour and 10 minutes, my head hurt from shaking it so many times and I honestly had no clue what was going on or why anything that had gone on had gone on.  Just literally completely clueless.  We threw in the towel from there.

I was curious, so I read all I could after the fact and want to applaud this for what it set out to do, but for me and most of the movie going public, this is just way too...well...way too everything, I guess.

It's way too long.  It's way too complicated.  It's way too hard to follow.  It's way too deep.

I can see what kind of peeps this will appeal to and no offense, but these peeps sure aren't my kind of peeps.

I applaud the auther of the novel.  I applaud the makers and the financers.  I applaud the actors.  I just can't applaud the final film.

Finally rented it on RedBox and sad to say I wasn't impressed either. It was one I was excited to see.....but oh well.

Just caught this on HBO.

I had roughly the same problem with this as I did The Counselor: it's clearly supposed to be a book. The very structure lends itself to that medium. As a result, the film stretches itself way too thin and ends up a big mess.

Someone mentioned New Year's Eve and Valentine's Day earlier. Not that either of them are any good but to their credit, they at least make the vignette structure work for them by using small stories with simple stakes (e.g. making it to a party, meeting someone new, etc). With the exception of maybe one or two, Cloud Atlas is all big stories with big stakes and bigger themes. Most of them could've been their own features. Unfortunately, none of them are developed as well as they should be because they all have to fit into the same 2+ hour running time.

The film doesn't look very good either because similarly the massive budget has to stretch across all six stories, some of which require some serious production value. As a result, most of the makeup, costumes, sets, etc. look hokey and cheap. That's not okay when you're dealing with a film where most of the actors are playing different races, sexes, or otherwise beings that don't look like themselves (e.g. Hugo Weaving as a monster, Hugh Grant as a cannibalistic tribal chief). I understood the reason(s) for these choices but if you're going to pull it off, it better look fucking perfect.

The editor did a piss poor job on this as well. So many instances of suspense built up only to cut to a different story right before something big is about to happen. So many instances of action scenes from different stories intercut with each other so that neither can play out properly. So many instances of certain stories abandoned for so long, you forget where you'd left off when they come back. I mean, this film was clearly going to be difficult to follow based on the premise alone. You'd think they'd want the editing to smooth things over some.

It's funny. I totally expected rampant sentimentality and tonal shifts to irk me the most. Both are here, of course, but were surprisingly the least of the film's worries.

The most unfortunate thing here is that with the exception of the editing, I don't think the filmmakers did a bad job; it seems like everyone worked really hard to make this happen. I think the final product is weak but to me, that's more to do with just how little this particular story lends itself to cinema. To do it properly, I think, would require a flat out cost prohibitive budget and a running time of four hours *at least.* In other words, it probably couldn't happen.

An ambitious project to say the least and it would take guys who made something like The Matrix to do it. But I can't get behind this. Some stories are best left on the page.

Quoted from James McClung An ambitious project to say the least...

I think that's why I liked it. I saw this a while ago and remember enjoying it aside from getting annoyed at my gf's almost constant questions. She didn't like it and didn't want to even attempt to follow it.

I got enjoyment from seeing this attempt. Just to see something different for a change. Maybe they didn't pull it off, and maybe that is for many of the reasons previously stated, but this film stands on its own.

Just goes to show though too that when you try and do it differently there will always be a large portion of the population that will prefer to watch the same old thing again.

I believe this film is worth watching once by everybody. Personally I crave 'different' and am usually determined to enjoy it as a consequence.

Hum. I thought this was extraordinary, and a rarity in that it totally earned its grand ol' Hollywood sentimentality in a modern way. I applaud everything about this movie, including the things that made it seem silly at times (Keith David in Seoul being a prime example, as above), because they were the right choices to make for the story.

I think this movie unabashedly set itself up to be a failure on release into today's market, but I think it will stand the test of time. In a year when The Avengers, Skyfall, Dark Knight Rises, The Hobbit, and Ice Age 4 were the five top-grossing movies -- and in a time when that's par for the course -- this film stands out in its respect for its characters and in its respect for its viewers.

Fantastic work.

This is a fine film. It also stands up well to repeated viewings. There are very few films as ambitious as this. It's a real pity it wasn't a bigger hit as it deserved to be. But it'll make up for it in the years to come.

It's also the first film I've seen Hugh Grant in where he wasn't just being Hugh Grant.

R

Opening this weekend?!
This movie is two years old

My socks are at least twenty years old. But they're still good.

R