"Cloud Atlas"

[The Ü™]

The new movie from Lana (formerly Larry) and Andy Wachowski (The Wachowski "Brothers") and Tom Tykwer.

Looks like The Fountain on steroids.

Have a look at the longest trailer ever along with Tom Hanks and the goofiest wig you'll ever see.

 

[MacGuffin]

Loved the book, no idea how it'll be made into a movie with 6 barely interlocking stories.

 

[EntangledLight]

i couldn't access those specific videos (and i've never seen The Fountain), but looked Cloud Atlas up on youtube and it looks great. the trailer didn't go into that much detail about the story itself, but it's supposed to be about reincarnation and people attempting to chase each other through time despite choices they've made (and actions of others) in the past conspiring against them...?

sounds like a awesome movie!

 

[Totenkindly]

It actually looks interesting, plus I'm curious to see if there's any differences in approach now that it's Lana and Andy.

Haven't read the book. Maybe it's worth a read.

 

[Qlip]

Huh, a friend told me about this today. I'm surprised and actually pleased they let the Wachowskis have another crack at a large budget movie, I wasn't sure that was going to happen again.

 

[The Ü™]

Huh, a friend told me about this today. I'm surprised and actually pleased they let the Wachowskis have another crack at a large budget movie, I wasn't sure that was going to happen again.

I personally thought Speed Racer was great. Can't understand why critics hated it so much. The Wachowskis are masters at creating visually original movies, with The Matrix being the notable exception.

 

[Poindexter Arachnid]

I saw a trailer on Wednesday. It looks interesting. Nice visuals if nothing else.

 

[MacGuffin]

Yo, if any of you read for pleasure, read the book. It's damn good.

 

[Qlip]

I personally thought Speed Racer was great. Can't understand why critics hated it so much. The Wachowskis are masters at creating visually original movies, with The Matrix being the notable exception.

Lol. I actually agree with you about Speed Racer. That movie was really good fun.

 

[Poindexter Arachnid]

Speed Racer wasn't bad, actually.
The trailer made me scoff at first, but my friends dragged me to the midnight show and I was surprised at how well it worked.
Better than 90% of the Hollywood crap that is released nowadays at least.

I'd be down for a sequel, but the original was box office poison.

 

[The Ü™]

Speed Racer wasn't bad, actually.
The trailer made me scoff at first, but my friends dragged me to the midnight show and I was surprised at how well it worked.
Better than 90% of the Hollywood crap that is released nowadays at least.

I'd be down for a sequel, but the original was box office poison.

My best guess is that critics hated Speed Racer because it gave them seizures.

 

[Poindexter Arachnid]

I believe it got bad reviews. Can't remember.
Nonetheless, most people weren't interested in it at the time.

But I do remember that Summer of 2008.
ALOT of competition that year. Iron Man, Tropic Thunder, Wall-E, The Dark Knight.

Speed Racer was just a placeholder for those.

 

[The Ü™]

But I do remember that Summer of 2008.
ALOT of competition that year. Iron Man, Tropic Thunder, Wall-E, The Dark Knight.

And Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Which reminds me, I watched TGWTG review Temple of Doom, and I agreed with him completely. And I loved how he brought up the dingy flying over a cliff and how it gets a free pass next to surviving a nuclear blast in a refrigerator.

 

[Poindexter Arachnid]

And Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Which reminds me, I watched TGWTG review Temple of Doom, and I agreed with him completely. And I loved how he brought up the dingy flying over a cliff and how it gets a free pass next to surviving a nuclear blast in a refrigerator.

Oh, yeah! I forgot about that one.
Truth be told, I didn't want to remember it.

I saw that one opening night and took my mother the next day for her birthday.
At least I got to eat movie popcorn two days in a row. I don't know.

 

[Totenkindly]

I just saw it tonight.

I could tell it was long, but it didn't get dreary to me because it kept cutting between all six stories, and kept a decent narrative link between them so that much of the time they either played into each other thematically or scene-wise.

There were a few spots that seemed a little out of place (like the gun chase in 1973, or the Mister Hyde vision that keeps appearing to Hanks throughout the section where Hugh Grant plays a cannibal), but even the futurist fights/chase seemed to fit decently.

The acting was pretty decent (although Hanks was a little off on his accent in spots), and the makeup is pretty amazing. Not perfect, there's only so much you can do, but sometimes actors remained pretty unrecognizable in their various roles.

Not just writing but also editing this movie must have been a real bitch, and I think it deserved better on overall scores. It's one of those pieces that either will be meaningful to you and thus moving, or it won't be and thus won't seem to be a big deal. But as someone who has had experiences being marginalized by the system, as well as someone who views humanity as all part of the same cloth and is tremendously bothered by how we draw petty distinctions among each other simply to ostracize, control, exploit, or limit each other, I was very moved by some scenes to the point of shedding tears more than once. (I was most moved by the 2144 sequence in Neo Seoul, and by the gay composer sequence.)

(as comparison, I might be able to say that a movie like Malick's "Tree of Life" was more artistic, but I carried nothing away from it that was useful to me.)

I think the line that I brought out of Cloud Atlas, for me personally, is that maybe we are each only one drop in a huge ocean (so what can we possibly do?), but then again, the ocean is made of a multitude of drops. And Somni-451 was compelled to speak her truth even if it was going to be squelched. When you experience something profound and real, how can you remain silent even if the penalty is death? There are some things that run far deeper than life, and death itself is just a door.

Ben Whishaw was EXCELLENT as Frobisher, btw, and I think he is playing the new Q in "Skyfall," out in ten days.

 

[yenom]

fucking INFJ movie. INFJs might like it, but i don't understand what it is saying or how the stories are connected, other than universal theme of struggle against slavery and quest for freedom against the social order.

 

[Stanton Moore]

I thought it was brilliant, although I understand that it's not for everyone.
I enjoyed the interconnection of the stories, minor though it was.
The Mr Hyde character that Jennifer mentioned seems like it was inspired by the theory of 'the bicameral mind'...

 

[Totenkindly]

Since I have a kinship with INFJs, I can acknowledge that criticism by yenom.

... interesting connection to the bicameral mind. I need to read more about that, it's been awhile since last I read of it.

 

[Stanton Moore]

Since I have a kinship with INFJs, I can acknowledge that criticism by yenom.

... interesting connection to the bicameral mind. I need to read more about that, it's been awhile since last I read of it.

Bicameral means 'two chambers'. It refers to the idea that, in the distant past, around 4,000 BC(?) man had only primitive consciousness, and little self awareness. This caused ideas and thoughts to be attributed to an external authority, god or angels, etc, but not to one's one mind; hence, two chambers within the psyche. I think that about right. Been a long time for me too.

 

[Totenkindly]

Bicameral means 'two chambers'. It refers to the idea that, in the distant past, around 4,000 BC(?) man had only primitive consciousness, and little self awareness. This caused ideas and thoughts to be attributed to an external authority, god or angels, etc, but not to one's one mind; hence, two chambers within the psyche. I think that about right. Been a long time for me too.

yes, in my quick skim, the modern-day notion of self-consciousness and abstracted thought where we can consciously dialogue with ourselves is a recent advancement in human thought, a progression from the bicameral approach...