![]() Sound quality is top-notch as well, listening to Old Georgie is chilling, as is the vision of Korean diners, and well. Also deserving of praise, and possibly Oscars is the large scale visual effects that cover hundreds of years and look so believable. There is a huge number of transsexual and even race-bridging roles- it's worthy of note that Lana Wachowski was at one point Larry Wachowski. Much credit has to go to the makeup, literally making actors disappear into their roles. Doona Bae as Somni and Hugo Weaving's "Old Georgie" round it out- the latter is truly a demon. A few highlights: Sturgess' lawyer and the slave Autua, Frobisher, Hugh Grant's sexist nuclear boss, Cavendish and Hanks' Hoggins. People play characters you had no idea they played. In the credits, each actor's name is placed with a clip of every one of their characters everyone in the theatre stopped and stayed. I've only talked about the plot! The actors really steal the show. But Hanks and Berry are fantastic again, the barbarians are menacing and scary, and the story is cool. It was my favourite, possibly because I'm a sucker for anything involving apocalypse. Lastly is the bleak, Hawaii- set post-apocalyptic story. But that scene of horrendous dialogue, the weakest in the film, can't derail a great piece. The future Korea is visually stunning and communicates its themes well, certainly the darkest plot, but the action can get over the top (Yes, I know who directed this) and there are some horrible clichés. Listening to the 'Cloud Atlas Sextet' fits with all the stories, but can't resonate with Cavendish's. Although while the story is interesting, it doesn't fit quite so well thematically- it's almost too light. The 2012 story is hilarious, and its first scene is a standout Tom Hanks is incredible as Dermot Hoggins. The Nuclear thriller was strong, Halle Berry is great and there are some real twists, and I also loved the 'Dirty Harry' and 'China Syndrome' vibes, but comedy bled into it from the 2012 story which diminished the climax. I found that while the earliest two stories began slowly and plainly, they developed very well and provided fantastic drama, especially the 1849 story. Each of the stories has strengths, a few have faults, but together the medley is incredible. But as with the characters, these plots are connected thematically, and clever wordplay and visual imagery links the stories, such as the end of a monologue referencing "the gates of Hell" and cutting to a shot of the gates of a building that, for Cavendish at least, is the gates of Hell. Genre conventions are toppled, as these stories with different tones are juggled in short intervals, leading from comedic highs to shocking drama in minutes. A Blade Runner-esque clone's struggle for freedom, and the survival of a tribe after 'The Fall'. In just under 3 hours, six radically different stories are told, and they appeal to a broad audience: a 19th century tale of unlikely brotherhood, the letters of a gay composer to his partner in the 1930's, a San Francisco- set conspiracy in the 70's, A hilarious account of an old publisher's woes. Cloud Atlas is also thankfully a very enjoyable film, much longer and denser than much of what is available today. ![]() ![]() But it also is thematically dense it wants to tell you something through plot, characters, dialogue and symbols. It tells a big story in an engaging, difficult fashion. Cloud Atlas is unlike its contemporaries at the multiplex.
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