Escape to the Movies: Cloud Atlas

[shogunblade]

The one thing I find to be quite interesting (From all the reviews I've read so far), is that no one has called it "A Great movie", just "Ambitious". Moviebob called it "Ambitious", Roger Ebert called it "Ambitious".

I'm truly happy to see its not getting "Best Movie of the Year" buzz, but just "Most Ambitious movie" awards, and in that reasoning alone do I want to see the movie.

It's hyperbole that's a tad easier to swallow than "Worst Movie" or "Best Movie".

A great review, Bob, I really hope to see this movie soon.

 

[Baldry]

Well when it's out in the UK 5 months from now I'll be sure to go see it.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Okay, I'm sold. Gonna go see this. That sounds amazing.

 

[thisbymaster]

This sounds confusing at best.

 

[RTR]

I am so bummed out by the fact that this movies doesn't seem to have a release date yet in my country. However, I guess it'll get one so that it can come out around January. Where I'm from, the big Oscar movies that didn't come out the year before are put in theaters before the Awards Ceremony. Then again, this is going to be one of those super-polarizing movies so I don't know how likely my theory is.

 

[Strain42]

I can honestly say I had never even heard of this movie until I came to watch today's episode...

But now I want nothing more right now than to SEE. THIS. MOVIE.

And Justice League the same year as The Avengers 2? That IS gonna be interesting.

Does this mean we can expect a nice array of DC movies next year to build up to Justice League in the same way Marvel has done it or are they just gonna do Justice League first and then maybe the interesting characters will get spin-off movies from that.

Did they ever settle on a director for Justice League? PLEASE tell me it's not Brett Ratner.

 

[Kuth]

I saw a preview of this a while back. I thought it was a pirate movie.. then a dual story of present and past.. then it goes to the future and I go 'WTF?' The preview itself was a mind blow, and I thought it would either suck or go Cirque de sole on my ass.

 

[Milanezi]

Okay then, next week I'm seeing Operation Skyfall, hopefully Cloud Atlas will not be in theaters yet in Brazil, thus allowing me a week's breath to go back to the theater to see Cloud Atlas, because it looks simply mind bending fucktardic awesome. I don't go to the movies often, I find theaters can hardly justify the price and the quality here (in Brazil) isn't always the best, so I'm pretty picky about what I want to see in a theater and what I'll settle to watch on Apple Tv or Blu-Ray, those two titles I wanna see in the bloody theater NOW!

 

[GamemasterAnthony]

Strange...the Star Tribune gave this a bad rating, but like you said, some people are going to hate it and I suspect the film reviewer for the Tribune was one of them.

Avengers 2 and Justice League at the same time. Yes...that will be VERY interesting considering what happened with Green Lantern. However, if it turns out to be a Christopher Nolan vs. Joss Whedon situation...this will be VERY VERY interesting!

 

[Don Reba]

Gah, it sucks to be in Europe sometimes. The movie will probably hit the torrents before theatres here.

 

[cyvaris]

I was lucky enough to see this in Imax last night/this morning at midnight. My mind is still reeling from the sheer epic scope of the movie.

 

[Zhukov]

I wanted to see this, but was on the fence because of the Wachowski brothers. Seems like its worth it though.

And why would someone be on the fence about them? Please don't tell me its because of the Matrix movies...

Huh. What I heard was second hand, so perhaps I'm operating on incomplete information.

I'm just delighted to hear someone say that it isn't terrible, let alone good.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

This is the first time I hear about this movie. I like what I hear.

 

[Guffe]

This sounds interesting which is a good thing.
This sounds confusing which for me is the bestest thing, I love "mindfuck movies"

 

[yunabomb]

The fake asians don't really look asian. They just look like white people pretending to look asian based on what I've seen. The K-pop eyebrows look pretty weird as well, although I don't know if there's a reason the actors have been stylized to look that way.

 

[daxterx2005]

I'd never even heard about this movie....and I want to see it really bad now.

 

[Aureliano]

Cloud Atlas is basically a series of one-acts with a significantly amped up budget and some A-list stars. They're not terrible one-acts but they don't have a lot more to say than your average off-Broadway play either. The special effects are good and the acting is generally not bad, though I'm not totally sure I'm down with the idea that the only reason to perceive any difference at all between people of different races, sexes or sexual orientations is due to oppressive discrimination.

As far as its sixness and the stories in general, I could have done with a little bit more of an overarching narrative as opposed to six largely self-contained stories. I wont spoil it, but I wasn't exactly enthusiastic with the ending of the Victorian story. It just seemed like they ended it that way because that's what's supposed to happen in gay romance stories. And don't get me started on the almost random philosophical platitudes in the chronologically latest short films.

Not sad I saw it, but I doubt I'll want to see it again.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I dunno.... I agree with you on a lot of things Bob but when your review is almost the polar opposite of the general consensus, that's when I seem to disagree. This is one of those reviews.

The most common criticisms of the film seem to be that each of it's eight stories come off more as trailers for real movies and that the film's "deep message" gets jammed down the audience's throat and comes off as pretentious.

I think I'll wait until some of my friends see it. They have very similar tastes in movies as me and if they tell me that it is good, then I'll go see it.

 

[CaptDom]

Gah, it sucks to be in Europe sometimes. The movie will probably hit the torrents before theatres here.

Sigh, wait till March or February? Fuck no.

They can keep their fucking film, I don't care what the excuse is, do we really have to still put up with this shit in 2012?

Maybe I can use the time to read the book first, if only. Hah. Bollocks! I'm boycotting the whole franchise. All by myself if I gotta.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

Yes, but what is the movie about? Or is this one of those cases where "It's about two hours" really is the only correct answer to that question?

Gah, it sucks to be in Europe sometimes. The movie will probably hit the torrents before theatres here.

Sigh, wait till March or February? Fuck no.

They can keep their fucking film, I don't care what the excuse is, do we really have to still put up with this shit in 2012?

Maybe I can use the time to read the book first, if only. Hah. Bollocks! I'm boycotting the whole franchise. All by myself if I gotta.

Really? You're pissed that you don't get to see the movie soon enough, so you're refusing to see it at all, ever? That has to be the pettiest thing I've ever seen, and this is the Internet.

Plus, news flash: boycotts of movies/games/shows don't work, and on the rare occasion it makes an impact on box office/sales/ratings, the distributor/publisher/network just interprets it as "people didn't like this movie/game/show so we should stop making movies/games/shows like it". Jim Sterling explains it better than I can. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/6187-Why-Boycotts-Fail-Where-Whining-Tantrums-Win]