Cloud Atlas - Why has it been snubbed?

Jedi Master

I went to see Cloud Atlas on Monday (it has only just come out in the UK), and I came away absolutely raving about it! I seriously cannot understand why this film has simultaneously been dismissed by critics, ignored by audiences and snubbed by award-givers.

For those of you who don't know Cloud Atlas is a film, directed by the Wachowski siblings, which weaves together 6 separate narratives spanning centuries of time and crossing completely different movie genres. The stories themselves are seemingly only connected by small (and sometimes only suggested) details, three characters manage to make it into more than one story, but only one of those is literally in the second story, the other two are simply referred to. What links them together (apart from the brilliant editing) is shared themes and, above all, the use of the same actors under varying amounts of make up, at times transcending race and even gender (Ben Wishaw plays a retired housewife and Halle Berry plays a white woman, to mention but two of the less impressive examples). The cunning thing is that, although make up and acting come together brilliantly to make each character recognisably distinct, they also leave just enough for you to know who you are watching, which somehow makes the whole thing even more entrancing and exciting!

I was just so impressed by the way this movie told six stories all at once. I'm usually terrible at following plot lines, but I knew exactly where we were in all six at and I enjoyed every visit to every story! There was tension, there was action, there were stimulating characters, there was love, there was betrayal, there was comedy, there was fun! What more could you ask for? Please somebody explain to me why this brilliant film has had such a cold reception!


tl;dr - Cloud Atlas awesomely brings together 6 diverse stories in a triumph of cinematography, why isn't it a massive hit?!

JediM

Napoleon Plural

It's a very long film so when it comes to box office, well, I'm not sure I want to chance it. I may or may not like a movie, but it's hard work with a long running time. Maybe The Master had the same problem last year.

Jedi Master

It is quite long I grant you, but I wasn't bored at any point because you were never in one place long enough to get bored. It kinda needs to be as long as it is to go over all the different threads in sufficient detail. I don't know what sort of films you like, but I'd urge you to go and see this. It's only 3 minutes longer than The Hobbit, and half an hour longer than Skyfall; as long as you make a trip to the toilet before hand and have some popcorn (or snack of your choice) to munch on I think it's well worth it!

I'm just sad to think that the next time somebody proposes a daring new screenplay of this sort to a studio, they will look at the box office of this film and think "no, this is too much of a risk, lets just remake Spiderman again".

Distorted Humor

well, I cannot say much on this film, haven't seen it, but the critics who recations where mixed (some really liked it, some didn't) but many said it tried too much.

Also, it was a unusually good year for movies, Zero Dark Thirty, Argo, Lincoln, life of Pi, and so on, which does not help when your trying to get awards. Now if it was last year it might of been nominated for some awards.