Unsatisfactory. That is a generous description of how Cloud Atlas was in movie form. In fact I did not end up finishing the movie. I got to about two thirds of the way through and decided that I did not want to continue watching. I wish I could get that $3.99 back... It probably was not as bad as I am making it seem, but having watched it after just recently finishing the book made it all the more unsatisfactory.
I was sufficiently annoyed at the movie's deviance from the plot in the book. I understand that the book would be extremely difficult to recreate as a movie, but the movie does the book little justice. I realize that this post sounds fairly harsh so far, so I will first credit Tom Hanks at playing his many roles very well. Also Halle Berry fits Luisa's role just how I imagined her to be. Other than that, I pictured the other characters as much different looking. I also thought a few characters from the movie did not act as I thought they should based on the book.
Frobisher has a completely different personality in the movie than he does in the book. In the book Frobisher seemed arrogant, slightly aggressive, and extremely stubborn. Whereas, in the book he was at first portrayed as passive, and did not stand up for himself to Ayrs like he had in the novel. I thought that this was an important part of his character, and that the movie took this component away. For example, Ayrs taunts Frobisher, asking if he has "mastered 'Three Blind Mice'?" So Frobisher slyly sat down and "played the syphilitic crank 'Three Blind Mice', after the fashion of a mordant Prokofiev". Ayrs also states that he "needs a little time to decide whether or not [he] can find use for [Frobisher's] gifts", and Frobisher mocks Ayrs by saying the same thing back when Ayrs hastily admits that he wants Frobisher to help him compose music. This is the sort of fire from Frobisher is missing in the movie.
I thought that the Somni part had some components to it that were portrayed well in the movie. I enjoyed how the Papa Song's restaurant was shown to be based on the customers interactions with the genetically engineered servers. I also thought the collars with the stars indicating the years worked at Papa Song's on them stayed true to the book. I did not like most other depictions of the Somni story in the movie. It skipped over the part where Somni lives with a college student where she acquires lots of knowledge. The movie also adds in a sexual relationship between Yoona~939 and the leader of that particular Papa Song's, which I did not think was the point of Yoona standing out.
Lots of relationships were added in to the movie, that were not included in the book. I thought that some of the relationships changed the meaning of the characters juxtaposed to one another. For example, Frobisher had a sexual relationship with Sixsmith which makes their friendship become something entirely different. I also did not think that the relationship between Zachary and Meronym should have been added. The only relationship that was not in the book that I thought worked well in the movie was the one between Somni and Hae-Jo Chang. It showed that Somni was capable of emotions just like any other human, even though she was genetically engineered.
Overall, the book was a thousand and five times better than the movie! Like most books do, Cloud Atlas has a lot more depth than the movie, and was much more thought provoking. In order to understand the full meaning of the concept that David Mitchell was trying to get across, one must read the initial source; the book.
I think that your ideas about the films deviation from the novel are very in depth and I appreciate them. Your views of the concepts used are great and it seems that your understanding of each theme and idea are very wonderfully explained.
ReplyDeleteThank you Kasey! I would definitely recommend that you read the book, because I think that you would really enjoy and benefit from reading it. I do not recommend the movie at all! I think you would really enjoy the Somni section because it is a very thought provoking section. You should consider picking up the book!
DeleteI appreciated how you analyzed both the strengths and the weaknesses of the movie. Your developed discussion of how the movie changes Frobisher's character was intriguing. What change in the movie bothered you the most? Did you enjoy any of the changes? I have not watched the movie, but I think I will just to see the director's attempt to capture such a powerful novel.
ReplyDeleteThanks Owen! The part that bothered me the most was the change in Frobisher's character. He was not entertainingly stubborn, and there was no Eva for him to fall in love with. I liked the way that Somni~451 was shown to fall in love in order to show that she is just like anyone else, but I really disliked the other parts of that section.
DeleteYou and I are on the exact same page when it comes to the movie- excessively simplified with a number of unwanted alterations. When I saw the Sonmi section I hated because it was a new plot that failed to cover the betrayal and corruption like the book. But your human connection piece with Hae-Jo makes a lot of sense now. Also, I think the book hinted at a special relationship between Frobisher and Sixsmith, but it was pretty subtle. Because there is simply too book for a movie to cover, do you think it work better as a TV series with a half hour or hour long episode for each chapter? Or would that make the different sections seem too removed from each other?
ReplyDeleteThere is definitely the suggestion of a relationship between Sixsmith and Frobisher in the book, which adds another component of a group that is treated poorly, but the subtlety, as you point out, is missing in the movie.
ReplyDeleteI also really disliked the movie, somewhat because it doesn't follow the same plot structure, which I understand would be rather difficult in a movie, but it would be possible.