Well yesterday, I posted here with the help of my goodreads
account, a book review of Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. I promised to myself that I will watch its movie adaptation as soon
as I finished the book. I kept that promise today. I did not intend to make the
movie review as well, but my mind is swarming with ideas to write such thing. I
can never write a spoiler-free review. Readers discretion is advised.
So here it is...
Where do I begin?
As I told my twitter follower earlier, I'm glad that I read
the book first before watching its movie adaptation. The book is written in the
following order:
The first half of Adam Ewing's Journal >>> Robert
Frobisher's Letter >>> The first part of Luisa Rey's Novel
>>> The first part of Timothy Cavendish Movie >>> 50% of the
Sonmi-451 Interview >>> Zachry's Yarnin' >>> The rest of Sonmi-451
Interview >>> The remaining Timothy Cavendish Movie >>> The
second part of Luisa Rey's novel >>> The rest of Robert Frobisher
letter >>> The second half of Adam Ewing's Journal.
...which is why I enjoyed the movie more after reading the
book. In the movie, all of that chapter is ... blended into one story when the
book separate it into six stories that intertwine with the one before / after
them.
The movie will be difficult to understand to those guys who
haven't read the book yet because there's a lot of thing going on and a
numerous amount of characters. The funny thing is, the character in the movie
is portrayed by the same actor over and over again xD The selection of the
actors and the actresses is pretty good too.
In the movie, they keep switching over the stories. I guess most
people will find it hard to follow the story. In fact, in the forum where I err…
‘borrowed’ this movie, most of guys commented how difficult it is to follow the
story. Some of them needs to watch this movie over and over again and some of
them didn’t even bother watching it till the end because he/she is too
frustrated by the movie.
And as for me? I quite enjoying the movie. I’m accustomed to
the style of language that the Valleyman use, or the archaic words that is used
in Adam Ewing’s story. Some glorious scenes in the movie matched the
imagination that I made when reading the book. The thing that I love the most
about watching the movie adaptation of my favorite book? It’s when they use the
original / slightly-altered passage in the book into their dialogue. The sound
of the direct book quote is a music to my ears.
The movie made some changes to the story (*just like all the
other movie adaptation from the books are.) Sometimes I enjoy the minor changes,
but a major one, I don’t. Like, come on… Robery Frobisher killed Vyvyan Ayrs? And
why did you butchered the Sonmi-451 story? That part of the story is more
action-packed than in the book. But I guess that’s the only major change in the
movie adaptation that I object.
I realized that there are a lot of missing character in the
movie, and there are a lot of plot omission as well. But I get it, they can’t
get it all in the movie. I think it’s hard enough to condensed a 500 pages book
into a two-and-a-half hour movie. But at least the scenes in the book that I
would like to watch is not omitted. Like when the author of the Knuckle
Sandwich threw that critic out of the balcony. They even show us the fall. (*it’s
gratuitously gory, but it’s really interesting to watch such thing. Most of the
movie won’t show us the moment when the body hits the ground. This movie is
awesome!). Or when he finally escaped Aurora House by crashing the car into the
gate. And the most glorious moment is when they’re in the bar. I find it hard
to imagine this scene when I read the book, and I’m glad that the movie
adaptation enlightened me. The bar fight is just a really great scene. Especially
when that guy smashed a keg of wine into Nurse Noakes head. I think The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy
Cavendish is the best story to be executed in the movie. I’m glad that in the
movie, Timothy ended up with Ursula. (*I don’t quite recall what happened in
the book because I’m in such a hurry to finish it, I guess.)
Some of the best part of Luisa Rey’s story are when Bill
Smole killed Dr. Sixsmith, the exploding plane, and also when Luisa Rey’s VW
hits the water. Those scenes are awesome. But the most satisfying scene from
this story is when that Spanish woman smashed Bill Smoke’s head with… err… a
wrench? It just exactly like that book and that’s just awesome xD I’m a bit
disappointed that Fen Li is omitted in the movie. She’s supposed to be blown to
bits before the whole the whole chasing begun. But at least the end of Luisa
Rey’s story is just like the book.
Zachry’s story is pretty good too. The way that they talked
is the same as the writing in the novel. They represented the Old Georgie as an
actual person, and that’s actually a great idea xD But the way they represent
old georgie is different than mine. I’m picturing old georgie in a more
grotesque way. The way they picture it? It looks more like Willy Wonka from
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with more make-up in his face. There are a
lot of changes in this story, but overall, I still like it. At least they didn’t
ruin the story as much. The augurin is different, thus the story is going in a
different way. They totally omit the part when the kona tribe attacked them
during a barter and captured the valleymen to enslave ‘em. But Meronym’s
awesome gun of massive destruction made its appearance in the movie, so I’m not
disappointed at all. But I’m disappointed that the kona soldier who died in
such ludicrous way of accidentally shoot himself in thehead because he didn’t
know how to use the gun didn’t make it in the movie adaptation. It seems like
Zachry and the rest of the Prescients made their way to some other planet to
live.
“Which one
is the earth?” asked Zachry’s grandson. Apparently, Zachry is married to
Meronym. The Planet they live in have two moon. The way Zachry’s story
concluded is better from the book, I guess.
Adam Ewing’s story is more complex in the book. Mostly
because the book use a lot of archaic words in it and I don’t understand it.
But seriously, it’s really hard to understand the first 39 pages of the book, I
almost give up reading that book. They only show us the essential of the story
about how Dr. Henry Goose actually just poisoning Adam Ewing for his treasure. They
did not mention anything about the evangelical thing. But I think that the
movie got carried away, because Dr. Goose is not supposed to be killed by
anyone :|
Robert Frobisher story is ruined by a murder. Robert
Frobisher is not supposed to kill anyone but himself in the book. And the
omission of Eva and the musical police is yet another disappointment to me. When
I read the book, I was surprised that R.F. killed himself in his last letter. But
in the movie, they already revealed that he’s going to kill himself from the
start of the movie. But at least the
scene where he saw sixsmith is not omitted from the movie.And oh! The close atlas sextet is a real deal!
The only thing that I didn’t like from this movie is how
they present us the Sonmi-451’s story. They completely omit the part when
Sonmi-451 is just a plaything for that boy. Or the part when Sonmi learn things
from her Sony. Yoona-939 death’s is more interesting in the book than in the
movie. But I guess it’s quite alright. This part of the story is too action
packed. I’m looking forward to the part when they show her the xultation. It’s
as horrible as I imagine it in my head when I read the book. The way they end
sonmi’s story is just sad. I don’t want to watch the xecution, to be honest. But
that’s also an interesting thing to watch.
The book ended with Adam Ewing. But the movie ended with
Zachry.
I guess that’s all I wanted to say about this movie. Read
the book first before you watch its movie adaptation. So maybe we can discuss
this kind of thing in the future xD
Alright then, bye…
