Cloud Atlas - A Two face review

Disclaimer: This post contains plot spoilers. Do not read this if you haven' t watched or read Cloud Atlas.

If you completely liked, loved Cloud Atlas, read the protagonist version and shed out happy tears. 

If you totally disliked, hated, couldn't understand it, do read the Antagonist/ parody version. Sit back and have a fun read.

P.S. For a musical reading experience, play this cloud atlas sextet and read it. 

Cloud Atlas – Everything is connected. A Protagonist Version.

Cloud Atlas is a stunning hexaptych, a clandestine composite film. By hexaptych, I try to brand that cloud atlas is a classic renaissance painting filled with six panels or sections painted in a beautiful canvas (a silver-screen here), depicting  an anthology of six different stories- that are interconnected and entwined in multiple themes and highly sedative theories of life, love, birth, death, existentialism, spirituality, reincarnation, modernism, past life etc….

If the thematic essence of cloud atlas must be realized, understood and dwelled upon, one must be familiar having watched lots of films that deal with multi-layered screenplay, hyperlink cinema. If you are a voracious reader, and came across nested stories and interwoven narratives - thereby intriguing lot of fantasy elements in it, that definitely helps in understanding cloud atlas.

Hyperlink Cinema, which is multi-linear in a more metaphorical sense, is one among the best, revolutionary things that happened in the film genre. It started way long before the advent of color films, but its tremendous rise and popularity can be well noticed in the past two decades.

My personal favorites under Hyperlink cinema includes like Amores Perros, The Edge of Heaven, 21 Grams, Mulholland Dr., City of Gods, Memento, Pulp fiction, Babel, Sin city, Crash etc..

For understanding Cloud Atlas in high level, I would recommend you to watch ‘The Fountain’ by Darren Aronofsky, ‘Café De flore’ by Jean-Marc Vallée, ‘Hereafter’ by Clint Eastwood.  These are the films that came as Déjà vu and flashed in my visual cortex while watching Cloud Atlas. Moreover these were close enough to explain cloud atlas to some extent.

‘The Fountain’ is a simple love story, triple layered screenplay, with a single quest- spanning across the past, present and future. ‘Café De flore’ is a musical film with two layered plot- dealing with love and reincarnation. ‘Hereafter’ is a supernatural fantasy drama based on the lives of a psychic, a tsunami survivor and 2005 London tunnel bombing survivor.

 If you’ve seen these flicks, you can get to know that the plot is dealt and revolved around with characters and stories that grow up on a sequential, contiguous timeline- often moved through a single quest/ motto/ search. Cloud Atlas here breaks another record by taking a further leap by narrating six different stories in a complete disoriented timeline that spans over centuries and moved in multilevel patterns.

Plot: 

The plot goes on in a circular loop with an idiomatic context, not like ‘What goes around comes around’ but ‘What starts here ends here’. An old Zachry sitting in a sandy beach narrates the story of a voyager, whose incomplete journal lands up in the hands of a struggling sextet composer, who shares his music and love in the form of letters with his gay partner, who turns out to be a whistle-blower against a nuclear research. 

Ok I’ll pause here. *Takes deep breath and continues*.

Meanwhile an old publisher tries to escape from filthy money lenders, unwillingly ends up in an old-age home and plans for an escape. This story is seen in a cinematic format by a genetically-engineered fabricant (clone) in a dystopian future society, where she starts to rebels against the exploitation of her race. *Gulps Soda*

On a distant post-apocalyptic earth, Meronym, a member of futuristic civilization paves a visit to a tribal clan. The fabricant from the dystopian society is idolized and worshipped by this clan. Young Zachry helps Meronym to find cloud atlas that would send a signal to the people who live in the outskirts of earth.

Finally it ends, where it starts. We could see old Zachry finishing his story telling session in the beach and returns back home with old Meronym. Behind them, we can see a pale blue dot that represents the Earth. Pheww..

Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess makes their appearance in all these six stories with interesting roles. A character that plays a protagonist version in one film plays an antagonist in another. Circle of life. Period.

A single character in all the stories carries a birth mark which gives us a hint to observe the theme of transmigrating souls. Irrespective of the criticisms, Tom Tykwer and the Wachowskis has made the fellow critics and cinephiles awestruck by adapting the unadoptable novel. They have also left us open lots of loop holes, loose ends, knots and puzzle that can be observed, discussed and ranted by the fans.

Cloud Atlas will be hailed and studied in future. Seen it twice already and will see it n number of times, hoping that each and every viewing will add up and stir a better shake, compared to the previous viewing.

Just like Memento DVD that has a special cut which runs in a Chronological sequence, I hope that Tom Tykwer and the Wachowskis release a Chronological cut of Cloud Atlas. That cut should run these six stories in parts as 6 different short films, each spanning over 27 mins. Similar to the documentary ‘Room 237’ that explains the hidden concepts, theories and philosophies of Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece ‘The Shining’, a documentary follow up must be made for Cloud atlas that explains the movie from lots of perspectives.

No wonder that this film received 10 mins of standing ovation in Toronto International Film festival. Watch Cloud atlas right away before some worst, cash grab, reboot/sequel movie steals the silver screen. Do watch this massive film in a big screen and get your minds blown in nanos. P.S. Don’t walk out near the end credits. Wait for it to roll out exposing the interesting character lineups. 

Cloud Atlas - 6/6

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Cloud Atlas: An antagonist version.

How to Prepare cloud atlas ?

Take 6 individual stories from top 6 genres of all time. Interconnect them. Integrate these six stories with x pieces, differentiate them into y pieces with each chunk running a minute. Yes, it’s the goddamn calculus. Jumble the chunks in a non-linear sequence. Add more of philosophic ingredients. Screw the audience mind like the way editor got his head jagged in the edit table. Mix it and mash up like how masala poori is mixed with khatta, mheeta, jeera and dhahi. Serve it plateful. Yeppie. Cloud Atlas is ready to eat.

Let’s see about these six stories in detail. I couldn’t recollect these six titles easily. So I renamed it for my comfort and understanding. Here it goes…

The Slave and the Sea:

Just like OC/BC/MBC/SC/ST quota in engineering colleges, there will be separate quota in Academy Awards every year under all categories of nominations. 

White helps black, superior helps inferior, dick helps douche- such types. You can find this in films like The Help, Hotel Rwanda, Blood Diamond, Schindler’s list etc… This is one such story.

On a Gold rush, a white guy finds a slave in his deck and helps him, fights for his right. Boo. 

Musical letters of a bi-sex(ual)tet composer:

In every film festivals you can find this type of film, which explains and explores the world of homosexual people, Incest- their life, love, pain and struggle. This is one such story.

An amanuensis for a musical composer struggles to compose a cloud atlas sextet. He shares his experiences and thoughts with this gay partner through letters. Finally kills himself with pain and regret. 

The Diving bell and the Journalist:

Erin Brockovich, The Insider, Whistle blower, Witness Protection Program, State of Play.

Journo facing and escaping all barricades to safeguard the truth..Meh.

Not a superhero script, but this is another single hero/ heroine where the lead will decode the entire conspiracy, the hidden mystery, the mythical mattresses, the lost sauce packet, the unfried finger chips etc… This may not be a serious script, but definitely wins box-office, Home DVD sales and big roles for the lead actors.

Oldies day out:

Movies like Prison Escape, A man escaped, Shawsank Redemption - dealing with a single guy or a group escaping a lockup, can be juxtaposed with movie scripts in which people are trying to get out of a mental asylum. Eg. One flew over cuckoo’s nest, K-Pax, Shock corridor etc..

A bunch of old, unfunny douchebags figures to escape an old-age home and executes it. On the verge of getting caught, they finally escapes. *Yawns* *Skips to next plot*

Do watch ‘It’s a kinda funny story’. It’s the young version of it and its really funny.

The White knight rises:

Minority Report, Terminator, Artificial Intelligence, Avatar, Bicentennial Man, Fabricants, Cyborg, The Island, Surrogates, Daydreamers, Transformers.

Our greedy human race has become even filthier in a so-called dystopian future society. Just like exploiting nature, feminism, freedom and democracy, human race has ended up exploiting fragments (clones) too in such futuristic society. Under the leadership of a clone named Sonmi 451, they rebel against the human race condemning the totalitarian state.

So basically, we mess with these clones, fabricants, machines, cyborgs etc.. and they fight us back. *Bitch Please*

Apocalypto & Co. meets the Star wars:

Cow Boy meets aliens, Harry Potter meets twilight, Spiderman meets Joker.

Makes sense ? Well that’s the whole point of this story.

This chapter is an epic facepalm. It simply reminded me of Wall-E movie where the fatso captain sits in-front of a big computer googles about earth and family. Eva coming down to earth in search of a plant, meets Wall-E, befriends and use him. Imagine the apocalyptic Tom hanks as Wall-E and White dressed Halle Berry as Eva. Wall-E helps Eva and he worries about the abandoned earth, while fighting with its own inner ego and demon.

Did you guys get the logic? Its fucking same. Goddamn !!

Too many CG, racist/worst makeups, multiple roles, lots of theories, 6 different stories with a mediocre hope that at least one story will satisfy audience in an individual manner. So there is nothing great about cloud atlas. It just like Andhra Meals or masala movies which has all spices, sweets, starters, main course, salads, desserts, Intro songs, fight, love, romance, family sentiments etc.. Even though it will make us feel full, it often gives us big headache, stomach pain, nausea and diarrhea. 

One can even consider watching Cloud Atlas as a 'Navarathri' screening, in which 6 films were played in a row the whole night to stay awake. Go for cloud atlas by telling yourself that you are gonna watch 6 films for the price of one.

P.S. If someone advise me to read the book, Ill punch and gift you 'Twilight' and '50 shades of grey' anthology. That’s what I call it as an epic. Damn you all cloud atlas likers !!