# Cloud Atlas trailer **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 27, 2012, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloud-atlas-trailer/629584 "2012-07-27T17:01:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloud-atlas-trailer/629584/1 "2012-07-27T17:01:48Z")
I’m sure many of you have read the book, now you can see the movie [trailer](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWnAqFyaQ5s). I’ve been meaning to read the book for the last six months or so, just haven’t gotten around to it. I’ll definitely need to have it finished by October. Thoughts on the trailer? ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloud-atlas-trailer/629584/2 "2012-07-27T17:18:57Z")
It’s a stunning trailer, and it looks like they are including all the components of the book. I’m surprised it’s out so soon! I knew a film was in the works, but not having seen any kind of teaser, I wasn’t expecting it to be out until next year. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloud-atlas-trailer/629584/3 "2012-07-27T17:26:55Z")
It looks amazing. I’m kinda ☹ at Hanks and Berry but maybe they’ll make me forget they’re Hanks and Berry. For once, people can’t say that the trailer gives the movie away. People who haven’t read the book are gonna be going WTF. They’ll probably still be going WTF after seeing the movie. I read the book and loved it but didn’t really get it until I read the Wiki article. And even then . . . ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloud-atlas-trailer/629584/4 "2012-07-27T17:28:05Z")
If they’re doing any justice to all six stories the movie would have to be six hours long. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloud-atlas-trailer/629584/5 "2012-07-27T18:13:21Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > People who haven’t read the book are gonna be going WTF. Hell, I’ve read the book and I’m still going WTF. ---
**Author:** ![happycamper\_5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/cab0a1/32.png) [@happycamper\_5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happycamper_5)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloud-atlas-trailer/629584/6 "2012-07-27T19:15:55Z")
As someone who’s read & loved the book & had little-to-no hope for the movie when I saw who’d been cast, I can only say…wow. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloud-atlas-trailer/629584/7 "2012-07-27T21:56:46Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > For once, people can’t say that the trailer gives the movie away. People who haven’t read the book are gonna be going WTF. Yup, pretty much. I’d never heard of the book and have absolutely no clue what the trailer is about. Reminds me of that Hugh Jackman movie where he played the same character through different eras of history. Don’t know if that’s actually correct or not. That said, it looks \*awesome \*and I really want to see it! ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2012, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloud-atlas-trailer/629584/8 "2012-07-30T16:18:02Z")
i really enjoyed the trailer, mostly for the way the score interacted with various scenes from the stories. That said, I’m worried about the film. The themes of repetition and reincarnation are very subtle in the book, barely mentioned. They really serve to tie all the stories together. The trailer took those hinted at themes and bludgeoned you over the head with them. It also seems like a compilation of every action scene from the book, which contains long periods of no action at all. The freeway chase in Somni’s story was very brief in the book. Also, a very minor point, but the Cloud Atlas Sextet composed in the second story and listened to by Luisa Rey in the third was a difficult piece of modern classical music, not an ethereal pop piece. (Not that I didn’t like the score for the trailer.) The book was a difficult but very moving and complex set of interconnected stories, each told in it’s own very authentic voice. I hope the movie does justice to it, but I’m not optimistic. Still that was a beautiful trailer. ---
**Author:** ![phreesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@phreesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phreesh)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloud-atlas-trailer/629584/9 "2012-07-30T19:44:48Z")
I have never heard of this before, but the movie looks ridiculously complicated. Amazing cast and visuals, though. ---
**Author:** ![tullsterx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tullsterx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tullsterx)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2012, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloud-atlas-trailer/629584/10 "2012-08-01T03:58:18Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Yup, pretty much. I’d never heard of the book and have absolutely no clue what the trailer is about. Reminds me of that Hugh Jackman movie where he played the same character through different eras of history. Don’t know if that’s actually correct or not. > > That said, it looks \*awesome \*and I really want to see it! Well, The Fountain was fantastic and made perfect sense to me. I can’t wait. I’m there. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloud-atlas-trailer/629584/11 "2012-08-12T22:55:08Z")
Posted a link to the trailer in the reading thread, then looked around to see if there was already a thread on the topic. I must say, the trailer looks great. Dunno if the movie can do the book justice, but I’m cautiously optomistic … ---
**Author:** ![LVBoPeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@LVBoPeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVBoPeep)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloud-atlas-trailer/629584/12 "2012-08-12T23:49:16Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > Hell, I’ve read the book and I’m still going WTF. This…I am excited for the movie but also hope that it will make some sense of it for me (will check out previously mentioned Wiki article). I really did like the Somni story. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloud-atlas-trailer/629584/13 "2012-08-13T02:52:32Z")
As was mentioned upthread, my fear is that they will hammer the viewers with the reincarnation angle (which was subtly suggested, not stated, in the book). ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloud-atlas-trailer/629584/14 "2012-08-13T02:58:15Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > As was mentioned upthread, my fear is that they will hammer the viewers with the reincarnation angle (which was subtly suggested, not stated, in the book). Yeah, seconded (well… thirded). I thought the book worked great with it being an ambiguous literary device, but even seeing the author stating in the wiki page that the reincarnation is supposed to be completely literal is a little disappointing. To me anyways. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloud-atlas-trailer/629584/15 "2012-08-13T12:59:19Z")
> [@GreasyJack](#): > > Yeah, seconded (well… thirded). I thought the book worked great with it being an ambiguous literary device, but even seeing the author stating in the wiki page that the reincarnation is supposed to be completely literal is a little disappointing. To me anyways. I just hope it doesn’t get in the way of the story(s). My initial take is that the movie looks visually stunning but may be lacking in the subtlety required to tell the stories well. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2012, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloud-atlas-trailer/629584/16 "2012-09-09T20:56:45Z")
Well, the movie has premiered at TIFF. Any Dopers see it? Sadly, I did not. Reviews are interesting - the critics appear divided: some disliked it intensely, but equally, many thought it a masterpiece. To my mind that is indeed encouraging. Obviously this was never going to be a story liked by all. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2012, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloud-atlas-trailer/629584/17 "2012-09-09T22:27:57Z")
Big profile of the movie and the Wachowskis in The New Yorker. They discuss the challenge of the narrative complexity and how they established a true line through it. The book’s author is quoted as saying this could be a situation where the movie exceeds the book. Gives me a bit of hope. ETA: the Wachowski’s dad is quoted, when discussing Larry/Lana’s gender change and the mythical “two people, one brain” relationship between the brothers, as saying: “they are the perfect married couple.”. Ew. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloud-atlas-trailer/629584/18 "2012-09-10T14:37:50Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Big profile of the movie and the Wachowskis in The New Yorker. They discuss the challenge of the narrative complexity and how they established a true line through it. The book’s author is quoted as saying this could be a situation where the movie exceeds the book. Gives me a bit of hope. > > ETA: the Wachowski’s dad is quoted, when discussing Larry/Lana’s gender change and the mythical “two people, one brain” relationship between the brothers, as saying: “they are the perfect married couple.”. Ew. Yeah, ‘thanks a lot dad’. 😃 The reviews are absurdly polarized. I’ve never seen such a division. Half the reviewers are raving about how this movie single-handedly revitalized movie-making, and the other half think it is unmitigated crap. Insanely positive: > [@](#): > > I walked out of Cloud Atlas utterly overwhelmed. Days later I’m still processing it. It’s a movie I could write about for days, the kind of film where each shot, each transition, is worthy of discussion and dissection. I haven’t even touched on the way that the telling of stories - through letters, memoirs, movies, manifestos - is used to speak about our endless human connection. There are so many aspects of the film I’ve only brushed past in this review, giving scant words to magnificent things. > > I can’t wait to see it again. Until I do I’ll hold on to the feeling this movie gave me, an incredible sense of hope for the future of cinema. And the future of humanity. How many movies give you that? [http://badassdigest.com/2012/09/08/movie-review-cloud-atlas-is-overwhelming-odd-and-utterly-completely-amazing/](http://badassdigest.com/2012/09/08/movie-review-cloud-atlas-is-overwhelming-odd-and-utterly-completely-amazing/) Insanely negative: > **[News Archives - Slant Magazine](https://www.slantmagazine.com/news/)** > > News about the latest developments in the world of film, music, TV, theater, video games, books, and more. > [@](#): > > “What is an ocean,” one character asks smugly, “if not a multitude of drops?” And what’s Cloud Atlas if not a multitude of terrible details and unwatchable moments? When Hanks throws a walking cliché of a stuffy British critic of literature from the rooftop terrace of a high-rise, I very seriously considered walking out; by the time Hugo Weaving shows up in drag as a nursing home bully, I was ready to renounce film criticism altogether and take up a less emotionally or psychologically taxing occupation, like the operator of an emergency suicide hotline (in fact, I could have made use of one myself by the end). The problem isn’t that this is one of the worst films I’ve ever seen in my life; the problem is that it’s seven of the worst films I’ve ever seen in my life glued together haphazardly, their inexorable badness amplified by their awkward juxtaposition. Tom Tykwer and Andy and Lana Wachowski wanted to make a movie unlike any other, and they certainly did: Cloud Atlas is a unique and totally unparalleled disaster. Ebert gives it a very positive ‘non-review’, compares it to 2001: > [@](#): > > I know I’ve seen something atonishing, and I know I’m not ready to review it. “Cloud Atlas,” by the Wachowski siblings and Tom Tykwer, is a film of limitless imagination, breathtaking visuals and fearless scope. I have no idea what it’s about. It interweaves six principal stories spanning centuries–three for sure, maybe four. It uses the same actors in most of those stories. Assigning multiple roles to actors is described as an inspiration by the filmmakers to help us follow threads through the different stories. But the makeup is so painstaking and effective that much of the time we may not realize we’re seeing the same actors. Nor did I sense the threads. The actors Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Hugh Grant and Jim Sturgess together portray 14 different characters, and not even sex is a clue because some of their roles cross gender categories. The end credits, which go by a little too fast, will surprise a lot of audience members. Sat what? Hugo Weaving plays Nurse Noakes? “Cloud Atlas” has locks on Oscar nominations for best makeup and costume design. > > The stories, much adapted and retold from a David Mitchell novel, include characters, times and locations as diverse as a 19th century sailing ship, a futuristic Korea, Aboriginals, young gay intellectuals at Cambridge, a nuclear scientist, a slave, a classical composer and others. There is a good deal of narration, most of it about the nature of human life (and some of it about lives of fabricants). There are chase and action scenes as good as than the best work by the Wachowskis (the “Matrix” films) and their friend and collaborator Tykwer (“Run, Lola Run”). Moment by moment, scene by scene, story by story, I was enthralled. > > What did it sum up to? What is the through line? I can’t say. Not today, anyway. Not yet. Maybe there isn’t one. What will its first audiences get out of it? My mind travels back to the first public screening of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” the film the Wachowskis says made them filmmakers, and inspired this one. As Rock Hudson walked out in the middle of the second half, I heard him quite audibly ask, “What the hell was that about?” [http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2012/09/\_i\_know\_ive\_seen.html](http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2012/09/_i_know_ive_seen.html) Interestingly these are all by reviewers who quite evidently have not read the book. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloud-atlas-trailer/629584/19 "2012-09-10T14:59:52Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > Interestingly these are all by reviewers who quite evidently have not read the book. Or the [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_%28novel%29). It seems like a given, that if you’re going to review a movie and the source of that movie is a novel and the novel is generally considered to be a bit more complex than most and you’ve seen the trailer and went “Whoa, what’s this about?”, wouldn’t you at least read the freaking Wiki? ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloud-atlas-trailer/629584/20 "2012-09-10T15:05:21Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > The reviews are absurdly polarized. I’ve never seen such a division. Half the reviewers are raving about how this movie single-handedly revitalized movie-making, and the other half think it is unmitigated crap. > > . That gives me hope. Generally, when reviews are 50/50, I love the movie. Whenever a movie based on a book comes out, I wait to see the movie first and use the book to fill in the details. But I love this trailer so much I might not be able to wait. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloud-atlas-trailer/629584.md?page=2)