"Cloud Atlas" R
This complicated Wachowski sibling vehicle is a Tom Hanks and Halley Berry acting adventure in an attempt to get a 2012 Oscar. Now that it is 2014, it has actually been seen for review here. It probably needs a second viewing, but it's tedious so it will not be necessary.
It is not actually about time travel, as the trailer implies, but about some kind of meta trip by souls through history, connected like a sort of far eastern allegory, crossed with a lot of weuropean cultural hangups, people in strange eras and costumes, and a really completely disconnected science fiction world at the end.
The reason for this is that much of the earlier footage set in the past, from the 1800s stuff to the 1970s stuff, was shot by several crews. It is three or four different movies. If you like one of them, then just watch that.
Although they do not reference video games they do reference use of cell phones and old movies, including an obvious and rather jarring reference to Soylent Green, specificially the ending, which actually gives away one of the plot twists later on.
Fahrenheit 451 is also referenced.
In the far off distant future, a former native of Big Island in a future similar to that in The Time Machine, is telling his grandchildren about being trapped on devastated Earth and being rescued by the humans that left the planet for space colonies.
Fifty some years earlier, the tribesman is trapped in a war over land while a mysterious ghost chases him, and a human from a space crew that has been studying the tribe breaks regulations and rescues the man.
Over a century earlier, in a future Seoul, Korea, a mysterious AI robot server becomes the Christ like leader of a rebellion unwittingly when she is saved by a mysterious stranger.
In the present day, 2012, an old man is trapped in a nursing home.
Then in the 1970s, a woman reporter must stop a mysterious environmental scandal when she unwittingly falls into a crime scene.
In the 1930s there is something about a mysterious author and some bad guys.
In the 1800s during slavery times there is a sea crossing where a man is poisoned by a crazed rich guy so he can steal his money, slowly.
Many of these stories allegedly intertwine because actors play several parts. The original story was a novel that was nearly not adaptable to screen. This could have been much better played as a miniseries, each episode taking place in each time period, so there was no flash forward, flashback stuff until the last act.
The jumps become disconcerting like the directors were on drugs, or had serious ADHD, or both.
Yes the directors were in love with the sound of their own stuff, and it shows, and yes it was based on a book of similar pretense, but still guys, come on.
Although it is not a bad movie, and it is engaging, it's just too confusing, and should have been two movies or a miniseries.
Clearly the concept was such a big idea they claimed destiny somehow makes people reborn over and over, like karma, and that somehow everything is connected. Six Degrees of Wachowski, with creepy undertones of that the creators are secretly in love with each other for real, not just in the movie.
They even have messages about intolerance everywhere, and that's okay, but it is 2012 as of the story and there should be very little left to the imagination about that.
And it was also directed by this other crew that did all the stuff that made more sense, but they don't get much mention.
So it is a mess but it's not a bad movie. It's probably on the bargain bin so it might be fund to have playing in the background at a party while discussing the nature of movies and destiny.
Review by Adam Browne
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