So I've just watched this movie today with a friend of mine. After first watching the trailer, and then reading up on a summary of what the plot entails, I made plans to watch this film during its opening weekend. Something about its trailer hooked me. It's hard to describe, especially because I initially failed to understand what the trailer was trying to convey. There were several different characters, and there were several different locations shown - Some vastly different from others. Upon reading a short summary of the plot on Wikipedia, I discovered the movie was based on a novel of the same title. It was a novel depicting six different stories that occured at six different eras. The overarching theme the novel attempting to address was the interconnectedness of our lives, and how the human soul travels from body to body, indifferent of ethnicity and sex, constantly living.
All that in mind, I felt prepared to watch the film this Sunday afternoon. And now that I've watched it, I can say that it was definitely worth it to at least do a bit of research beforehand.
The movie, I thought, was quite amazing. Each individual story had a draw to it. And as each story moved towards their climax, I literally felt the urge to tear at some of the tragedies the characters befall. But it wasn't just sadness - I found humor, fear, happiness, disgust, friendship... I found the movie to be quite representative of what life brings to each of us. Aside from evoking a number of emotions, Cloud Atlas is very well edited. The scenery represented in the trailer should provide a decent glimpse of what to expect. Much of the scenes in the more futuristic eras are also quite a sight.
Sadly the theater was less than half full, and reviews for the movie are very much mixed. From what I gather, this is a love it or hate type of film. I personally loved it, but I imaine it does take some patience to really appreciate this movie. The opening is sort of difficult to understand since the movie is riddled with a variety of accents. The film also happens to be three hours long. Still, I do encourage users here to give this movie a shot. Be aware that this is rated R in the US so kids probably won't see it. The R rating is due to a couple of nude and sex scenes, but also due to some rather graphic deaths portrayed. It's nothing too bad in my opinion though. And if you still can't understand what the movie's trailer is attempting to convey, try reading the book beforehand. A number of reviews really criticized the film for being too difficult to follow, so it won't hurt to try reading. A summary should suffice too if you don't want to read the source material.
In any case, for anyone who has watched the film, what are your thoughts? Also please keep spoiler under spoiler tags.
