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Cloud Atlas (Extended First Look)

Edwin Davies: Having read and kind of hated the novel on which the film is based, I think that the visuals look AMAZING but that it's ultimately going to struggle to make sense of its source material, which consisted of six stories told over millennia using a plot structure that could only be described as pyramidal. In the book you get half of one story, followed by half of the next, followed by half of the next etc. (in this metaphor this would represent moving slowly up the side of the "pyramid") until the sixth story which plays out in its entirety (and is the top of the pyramid), at which point you get the second half of each story as you go down the other side, eventually finishing with the ending of the first story. Confusing? Yep. It's a very clever lesson in delayed storytelling and gratification which sort of works in the book, and I say that as someone who really didn't like the overall work, but which would make for an absolutely horrible moviegoing experience. Yet without that structure, I don't know how the film will make any sense whatsoever. This is my incredibly convoluted way of saying that I am really interested in seeing how this film turns out, because I am kind of excited that something so clearly crazy has been given the greenlight from a major studio, and because it promises to be at the very least a visually stunning car crash.

Felix Quinonez Jr.: I can't decide if this looks really pretentious or really awesome...probably a bit of both. Either way I'm very intrigued. I hope this means the Wachowskis are back on their games.

Jim Van Nest: Knowing nothing about nothing with regards to this, it has jumped to the top of my must-see list. First, you can't complain about the cast. It's fantastic. I look forward to Hugh Grant playing a scumbag, I think that could be interesting. And no matter what, Tom Hanks just brings instant credibility to ANY project he's attached to. Can't wait to check this one out.

David Mumpower: At the 2:05 mark of this trailer, these words are posted: “From the creators of The Matrix Trilogy and the director of Run Lola Run”. On a personal level, this could be the most glorious combination of films I have ever seen. If there were no commercial here but instead that phrasing, I would watch this movie on opening day. Run Lola Run’s introduction of the ten second biography is among the most seminal artistic creations in modern cinema. Combining the bullet time kung fu ballet team of the Wachowskis and the genius of Tom Twyker is catnip to me.

Having admitted my (extreme) bias, I have no idea what I just watched. Cloud Atlas feels like a novel interpretation of Ken Grimwood’s ideas from Replay, my favorite book ever written. Tom Hanks and Halle Berry appear to be star-crossed lovers who desperately attempt to learn from all their mistakes in hopes that one day they will be together once and for all. Replay has some romantic elements to it but Cloud Atlas seems to be taking those ideas to a logical extreme. This too would be ample reason for me to want to watch the movie. Combined with the above, Cloud Atlas becomes one of my most anticipated features currently on the release schedule. And I have not even touched upon the visuals, which appear every bit as spectacular as we have come to expect from the Wachowskis.

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