Cloud Atlas (2012)
Cloud Atlas was marketed as a romantic drama about reincarnation. The preview showed a host of A-list actors in different settings, costumes, and time periods interacting in different or similar ways with each other. It indicated the main themes would be fate, karma, and love. The voiceover featured Tom Hanks suggesting that no matter how many time periods or lives he lives, he will always find his way back to Halle Berry, who was shown to be his love interest. There were excellent special effects, and what looked like moving dramatic acting. When I saw this movie in the theaters, it was as a special mother daughter date on Valentine's Day. Boy, were we upset!
Cloud Atlas is not a romantic drama about reincarnation. In fact, the original novel does not deal with reincarnation at all. Somehow the film makers thought it would be interesting to have the aimless actors play many different roles, probably as a way to keep the audience interested when there were frequent deaths and the time periods would change. If we didn't like sing seeing Tom Hanks as a villain, we could wait twenty minutes or so for him to get killed and then move on to his next segment. What the movie actually is, is a lot of special effects, make up, and great fun for the cast who get to play lots of different roles. Ethnicity and gender don't matter; the actors and actresses are made up to play all sorts of different people, reinforcing the reincarnation theme. There is also an incredible amount of violence in the film, which was not indicated at all in the trailer. It is very bloody and gruesome.
Something I am quite a stickler about is violence towards animals. If in a movie, a character harms an animal in any way, I generally turn the movie off or walk out of the theater. In one scene (the Chinese laundry scene, in case you’d like to avoid it), there is a dog who won’t stop barking and the villain shoots it. The reason I did not walk out during Cloud Atlas was because I sensed the movie was almost over and I was on a special date with my mom. I didn't want to ruin the evening – but the movie itself did that. Had the trailer shown an accurate depiction of what the film would be, I never would have watched it. All the people who did go see it, expecting romantic drama like I did, would not have been so disappointed. Ticket sales might have been better because people who were the target audience would have actually seen it and recommended it to their like-minded friends.
Had I not been given such different expectations by the trailer, I probably wouldn't have hated the movie so much. In fact, I have sat through it twice more with the intention of giving it fresh eyes. (And since I know when the animal violence occurs, I have used the fast-forward button on my remote.) As it is meant to be, a very violent drama about human nature, it is not bad. I am able to objectively give credit where it is due. That credit should not be given to whoever created and approved of the trailer. Give the credit to the makeup artists, the art directors, the special effects team, and whoever was able to sift through the indecipherable novel to create a screenplay. Also, a glass should be lifted to whoever enticed all the major movie stars to come together and work on what would end up being a gigantic box office bomb. That doesn't happen very often.
The enticing cast includes Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon, Jim Broadbent, Jim Sturgess, Ben Whishaw, Hugh Grant, Hugo Weaving, Keith David, James D’Arcy, and Bae Doona. But unless you are anxious to see cannibalism, suicide, graphic bullet wounds, mass slaughtering, a creepy imaginary demon, and someone’s head getting crushed by a beer keg, don’t rent the movie.
Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to sexual content, graphic violence, an upsetting scene involving an animal, and violence towards children, I wouldn’t let my kids watch it.
More Susan Sarandon movies here!
Cloud Atlas is not a romantic drama about reincarnation. In fact, the original novel does not deal with reincarnation at all. Somehow the film makers thought it would be interesting to have the aimless actors play many different roles, probably as a way to keep the audience interested when there were frequent deaths and the time periods would change. If we didn't like sing seeing Tom Hanks as a villain, we could wait twenty minutes or so for him to get killed and then move on to his next segment. What the movie actually is, is a lot of special effects, make up, and great fun for the cast who get to play lots of different roles. Ethnicity and gender don't matter; the actors and actresses are made up to play all sorts of different people, reinforcing the reincarnation theme. There is also an incredible amount of violence in the film, which was not indicated at all in the trailer. It is very bloody and gruesome.
Something I am quite a stickler about is violence towards animals. If in a movie, a character harms an animal in any way, I generally turn the movie off or walk out of the theater. In one scene (the Chinese laundry scene, in case you’d like to avoid it), there is a dog who won’t stop barking and the villain shoots it. The reason I did not walk out during Cloud Atlas was because I sensed the movie was almost over and I was on a special date with my mom. I didn't want to ruin the evening – but the movie itself did that. Had the trailer shown an accurate depiction of what the film would be, I never would have watched it. All the people who did go see it, expecting romantic drama like I did, would not have been so disappointed. Ticket sales might have been better because people who were the target audience would have actually seen it and recommended it to their like-minded friends.
Had I not been given such different expectations by the trailer, I probably wouldn't have hated the movie so much. In fact, I have sat through it twice more with the intention of giving it fresh eyes. (And since I know when the animal violence occurs, I have used the fast-forward button on my remote.) As it is meant to be, a very violent drama about human nature, it is not bad. I am able to objectively give credit where it is due. That credit should not be given to whoever created and approved of the trailer. Give the credit to the makeup artists, the art directors, the special effects team, and whoever was able to sift through the indecipherable novel to create a screenplay. Also, a glass should be lifted to whoever enticed all the major movie stars to come together and work on what would end up being a gigantic box office bomb. That doesn't happen very often.
The enticing cast includes Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon, Jim Broadbent, Jim Sturgess, Ben Whishaw, Hugh Grant, Hugo Weaving, Keith David, James D’Arcy, and Bae Doona. But unless you are anxious to see cannibalism, suicide, graphic bullet wounds, mass slaughtering, a creepy imaginary demon, and someone’s head getting crushed by a beer keg, don’t rent the movie.
Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to sexual content, graphic violence, an upsetting scene involving an animal, and violence towards children, I wouldn’t let my kids watch it.
More Susan Sarandon movies here!