MovieChat Forums > Cloud Atlas (2012) Discussion > 7/10, definitely not 10

7/10, definitely not 10

posted 9 years ago by alan_hanley2003
11 replies | jump to latest

I thought they did a really good job actually. The thing is the book is sensational... One of those lightning bolts of ingenuity and creativity, and it was so great BECAUSE it was a book. Who the hell does something like that?

The movie... For me could never live up to the book. I'm happy in this situation to be 'that person': the book was better (I was lucky to be a fan of his from number9dream and got a weird pre-publication version of cloud atlas from the primitive internet that has a warning on the inside cover that there might be mistakes in it that need correcting. I didn't find any)

[–] alan_hanley2003 9 years ago

My phone wouldn't let me finish. Anyway, the movie was OK, but not 10/10. The new Seoul scenes were gorgeous and they handled the multiple narratives reasonably well. But the whole idea of the same actors playing the same souls... Just didn't translate the concept of the book properly. But I'm not sure there is a proper way to do it.

All that remains is for Mitchell to get into a king-kubrick style war with the wachowski bros and make a ten hour long TV special of the book which will blow.

[–] fanatic21 9 years ago

See, I thought the actor gimmick was a really strong choice.

#1, it drives home the message that the barriers that humanity constructs are meaningless, and having people play across race and gender only reinforces this message.

#2, it is just simply fun to watch the actors play such a variety of roles in the film, and they all knocked it out of the park.

I also thought the structure of the film allowed parallels to be more easily drawn between the stories, and made the connections seem stronger.

[–] PopperTheKungFu-Dragon 9 years ago

#1, it drives home the message that the barriers that humanity constructs are meaningless, and having people play across race and gender only reinforces this message.

The thought behind it was good, but some of them just looked silly.

Poorly Lived and Poorly Died, Poorly Buried and No One Cried

[–] fanatic21 9 years ago

Definitely. Kind of adds charm to the movie for me though haha

[–] Mellow-Fellow 9 years ago

Paying like 20 different leads? Impossible, you need the box office draw of Tom Hanks and such. Even though it looks like it didn't really payoff for them.

I'm actually really upset I hit play on this one. I liked it well enough I guess... It's my fault.. I had the book before I saw this movie, now can't bring myself to read it. This and something called the "Bone Clocks" ill have to look that one up on goodreads, didn't even know I had it until just now.

[–] nammage 9 years ago

On this website 46,495 people would disagree with you. It was 7 for you, and a 10 for them. Your opinion means exactly the same as theirs. It's what *you* thought of it, and nothing more.

-Nam

I am on the road less traveled...

[–] Farshnoshket 9 years ago

That is an excellent point. For myself this film is a solid 10. It's actually in a league by itself. No film is like Cloud Atlas and it was a monster of a book tames by the W's.

On the other hand most people do not leave a rating. Most people don't even spend on time on this website and I'll leave that comment to stand on it's own.

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[–] Farshnoshket 9 years ago

The movie... For me could never live up to the book.

Actually, if you're going to go into a film with this thought your opinion means little.

They don't make films about lousy books.

For such an adventurous book and film yours reasons were nothing more than feeble. Great scenery in one story and the souls didn't translate well? This is all you have to say why the book was better? Maybe the book was better because you read it first and you were happy with what you read and when the film made changes you weren't happy with that? You wanted the film to be exactly like the book, but films don't do that. Films must be made different than books because these are 2 different mediums that must each respect there own boundaries. Books must paint pictures with words where as films are much more visual. Books can cover a lot more ground than a film, so films must be more concise in it's presentation. And of course there is so much more that separates book from film.

So I would like to hear more details why you believe the book was so much better than the film? Did the film miss something essential to the entire story? You told everyone you liked the book more, in a few different ways, but never really elaborated on the ways why and for something so substantial and complicated as the book Cloud Atlas don't you believe you could defend it better?

And to say that the film is a 7/10 says to me that you probably missed a lot of things the film had that the book did not. A 7? really?? A 7 is just above average. Did you get upset with the film when something happened in it that didn't happen in the book? Is that not allowed? Are you faulting the makers because they were quite inventive with their approach?

[–] lordDEMAXUS 9 years ago

lol you are getting kind of defensive

And to say that the film is a 7/10 says to me that you probably missed a lot of things the film had that the book did not. A 7? really?? A 7 is just above average. Did you get upset with the film when something happened in it that didn't happen in the book? Is that not allowed? Are you faulting the makers because they were quite inventive with their approach?

i gave the movie a 5/10 and i saw the film before i read the book(i loved the book) so dont give me the BS that i like the book more because i read it first. the problem witht he movie wasnt the premise but the adaptation/execution. sometimes it was good but sometimes the movie just got too melodramatic for me with those goddamn monologues everywhere that felt forced. the characters also felt extremely shallow and just boring. And the makeup, the makeup is just AWFUl. i liked the idea of reusing actors but the makeup was distracting and at times hilarious. Also if you think i gave it a 5 because of the structure, no that isnt the reason. two movies in my favorite films of all time are eternal sunshine of the spotless mind and memento and the structure and narrative was way more inventive than this film and the editing in those films was way better. i really think the movie is mediocre and is an even worse adaptation(again, i saw the movie before i read the book).