4 Ways to Fix Cloud Atlas | People's Critic: Film Reviews - seattlepi ...

****Spoiler Alert*****

My synopsis of Cloud Atlas ? A scenic three hour train ride headed nowhere. Is that to say the movie stunk? Not really. The film covers six stories that show the beautiful scenery of 1863 and imagine what our future looks like in the year 2144 and beyond. Apparently the film is about ?an act of kindness ripples across centuries to start a revolution?. Sadlyl, I missed the act of kindness and the revolution.

I checked Rotten Tomatoes to see I wasn?t alone. Cloud Atlas is floating at 61% with most reviews leaning towards the film being visually stunning but lacking substance.
Here are a few ways to fix it.

1. Shave off 45 minutes: The film follows six stories that take place in the years 1849, 1936, 1973, 2012, 2144, and 2346. That?s one too many ? 2012 could easily be cut from the film. We could?ve skipped this ripple and added more good stuff. It?s like the old Sesame Street game I grew up watching. Jim Broadbent is delightful in the vignette as Timothy Cavendish, but the story ends up feeling out of place and ruining the flow of the film. Tom Hanks? horrible accent and elderly escape plot didn?t help either.

A case could be made for 1973 getting the axe too but it had Hugh Grant as the evil an evil suit putting hits out on people. Speaking of Hugh Grant??

2. More Hugo Weaving and Hugh Grant: Weaving and Grant were fantastic. Hugo Weaving does Agent Smith things playing a dirtbag brother and corporate hitman, while Hugh Grant continues to erase people?s memory of Divine Brown and that infamous Hollywood night with every great performance. Both actors were good and both felt underused.

3. Subtitles Please: As my friend Jason Roestel so kindly pointed out (paraphrasing) If you?re going to create a language and use it heavily, we need subtitles. Not having them is annoying and pretentious. When you don?t understand the dialogue makes you restless and the filmmakers aren?t able to get their point across. There are no winners in the no subtitle scenario, only losers. What made it more hilarious was language sounded like a mix of Ebonics, 70?s slang, and a little Mork from Ork. And yes, it made my ears bleed.

4. Connect the Dots: I need people to get the memo out ? not ending a movie doesn?t automatically make the film artistic (I?m looking at you Paul Thomas Anderson) and neither does leaving plot points up to audience interpretation. The plot involving the year 2346 involves Tom Hanks having visions of Papa Shango and Halle Berry trying to find a beacon to send a symbol to space. It ends with a group of cannibals attacking Hanks? village and him leaving on futuristic speedboat with Halle Berry and a bunch of people dressed like they?re headed to a Diddy party. Cut to the end of the movie and they?re on some other planet light years away. How did they get there? How are they breathing oxygen? What happened to earth? How did Sonmi-451 get the Statue of Liberty treatment? Also, how did civilization get from the cool looking 2144 to Cannibal Land in 2346? Where?s the revolution the ripples lead to? A 5 minute voice-over/flashback would have helped.

Grade: C-

Source: http://blog.seattlepi.com/peoplescritic/2012/10/27/4-ways-to-fix-cloud-atlas/

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