• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

It's been nearly 5 years, but what are your thoughts on Cloud Atlas?

MMarston

Was getting caught part of your plan?
You know? That movie? The one before the Wachowskis gave us Eddie Redmayne's hammy as hell Jupiter performance.
cloud_atlas_ver2.jpg

Anyway, this film popped into my head all of a sudden recently and it occurred to me just now how long it's been since it came out. And that for all of its effort and novelty, it's never really brought up that much anymore in discussion. Considering its BO at the time, it's not that surprising. I also remember a lot of divide among critics and some of my few peers who did see it then. Still, I'm curious to know what are everyone's current opinions and musings about this movie given the time that's passed and I'm sure a little more of us have seen it by now.

To be honest, I myself have only seen it one time in the cinema during an evening after one of my undergraduate exams back and apart from one or two plotlines, a lot of the details are pretty hazy to me at this point. What I do remember is that by the end of watching it, my opinion was that I admired and respected it for the lengths it took to pull itself off. Unfortunately, it just didn't up resonating with me as much as I hoped considering the premise and that's probably why I never re-watched it, especially with a nearly 3-hour runtime (never read the book, btw).

Two other things also still stand out from memory, at least.
1. The soundtrack is really beautiful, even if I can't remember much of the context behind the tracks.
2.Jesus H. Christ, the race-change make-up was off-putting as fuck — most definitely the yellowface specifically — regardless if it's in the service of putting across the movie's "Everything is Connected" point.

So what say you, GAF?
 

KoopaTheCasual

Junior Member
Loved it, and still love it.

Also while I realize the "yellowface" controversy killed it's chance at being nominated for Best Makeup, it don't agree with the idea that some critics accused the film of white-washing.
 

MMarston

Was getting caught part of your plan?
Loved it, and still love it.

Also while I realize the "yellowface" controversy killed it's chance at being nominated for Best Makeup.
The controversy definitely did a number on it, but to be honest, I don't think the make-up was that stellar to begin with based on what I recall. I remember Doona Bae playing a white woman at some point and she just ended up looking terrifying instead.
 

Abounder

Banned
Ambitious yet rubbish. Agreed it's a hell of a lot better than Jupiter Ascending, and the soundtrack/cinematography was well done. Really a movie that needs repeat viewings I suppose
 
ambitious. i love what it was trying to do. but i think it failed.

im DYING to see the cut i think the netflix ceo was talking about? Supposedly like 4 1/2 hours?

also asian future keith david was.................an interesting choice
 
Great book and a pretty good movie but you had to read the book for any of it to make sense imo. Having finished the book a month before seeing the movie it helped.
 
It's an incredibly ambitious film that spans a very, very long period of time.

And yet, my favorite storyline involves a group of elderly folks escaping a nursing home.
 
I thought it was decent when it came out. I think it's decent now.

However some of the script writing was a bit bunk, and that's the true true.

How many times you gonna say "from womb to tomb", shutup. Also some funny ass moments.

Outside of that? Pretty decent.
 

Skel1ingt0n

I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
Super ambitious and the best trailer of all time.

Unfortunately, I think it failed on almost every level.

And that's the true true
 
Loved it. One of my favourite movies. Frobisher's story was really moving. It's hopeful and has a nice sense of humor - there are many flaws and the length is a common complaint but I never once checked my watch. Maybe because i don't wear one.
 

WGMBY

Member
I liked it, not as much as the book, but I feel like it was about as close as you could get to the spirit of the original while also being a film.

The constant hopping between 6 stories didn't bother me as much as I expected, mostly due to excellent editing.

And as others have mentioned, the soundtrack was amazing.

Also, for fans of the book, I'd also recommend Slade House. Nice short spooky ghost story by the same author.
 
Yellowface killed the movie for me.

I think the movie was already dead for you if "yellow face" was a problem.

Fucking political correctness gone wrong.

Next post this turd will be like "that man playing as that woman is a symptom of the patriarchal society inside Hollywood"

Back to marvel son.
 

Ran rp

Member
I think the movie was already dead for you if "yellow face" was a problem.

Fucking political correctness gone wrong.

Next post this turd will be like "that man playing as that woman is a symptom of the patriarchal society inside Hollywood"

Back to marvel son.

Ru11QML.gif
 

Shizza

Member
I thought it was entertaining and visually appealing, but I gotta admit I was lost at parts during the movie, and haven't given it a second thought since watching it. I can't believe it's been 5 years already!
 

GamerJM

Banned
I thought it was great but I haven't seen it since release, so it being "five years later," doesn't really change my opinion (it doesn't seem like that long ago that it came out). Very ambitious and largely succeeds. One of the most unique movies of this decade. Obviously very flawed and messy though.
 
I liked it. One of my first thoughts when I saw the switching between stories was "That's a really brave thing to do". But I thought it turned out to be quite interesting overall, not....SPECIAL though, but good.
 
I like it quite a bit. The only thing I don't like is the reincarnation concept which is different from the Buddhism ideas and frankly it doesn't make sense.

I don't have problem with the cross race "washing".
 

ajpw

Member
loved the book, loved the film and loved the music

pre war story really resonated with me

but agree with other posters, was def better to read the book first
 
Top Bottom