Movie Review : Cloud Atlas

 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…