Cloud Atlas (2012)
9/10
Masterful makers pour out love, life, liberty, and death!
24 October 2012
While your coffee or tea sits brewing imagine a couple of blank lines on a piece of paper. You can do this in your head.

On the first line write "comedy", on the opposite side of that write "drama". On another write "animal cruelty", on the opposite side write "emancipation". Imagine one more and on this write "sci-fi" and on the opposite side write "gangster" and so on and so fourth. Add contrasts of any popular "rights movement" or "movie genre" together for the other lines. Cross the lines at their center. Now spread them apart evenly, while they stay pivoted, like on a pinwheel. Lastly draw a circle, connecting all the outer ends of the lines. Pretend to run your pointer finger down the side, spinning the lines in the wheel while they sit on their axis.

Watch them spin.

That circle is this movie. It theoretically tries to be the best movie marketing event in history, balancing the whole "sphere" of what something can be to everyone in a single piece of art work. But in someways I feel like Cloud is a movie version of Starbucks. Cloud tries to dominate delightfully bowing down to everyone. It even goes as far as to lavish film critics and film elites everywhere. But I have to admit even... I... love Starbucks. So punk rock, anti-modernist, or hippie roots aside, this is still great coffee despite it's single flaw of domination.

If you don't know by now Tom Tyker of Run Lola Run and Perfume worked on this film. It is probably influenced much more by the risqué smell of the latter. You may have heard that the creators of the Matrix series played God in this epic actor heavy film too, but don't forget that they also made Speed Racer and V for Vendetta. All their past experiences are thrown on the table for this theme park of a "flick". But don't worry you will get your money's worth, this picaresque film is a three-hour long "park special".

As far as the actors. The Wachowski's and Tyker woefully and tediously molded these infamous creatures into the beauty that makes them ageless, and in someways I mean that literally. Then to make the play dough stick there are some little production perks that drizzle rewatchability all over this film, and they know it, as you will be treated to something special at the end of the film like a good waiter tending to it's guests.

You will be happy you watched. In someways I could see this masterpiece transcending time as one of the best films in history. But I'm not the judge, we the consumer are, and only one of our scientific gods, time, will tell.

On politics: Some people might feel like this film is liberally slanted, and it is in some ways. But I feel I can look at this in many conservative ways as well. The directors might not like that. Who knows. But I have done this many times through out. So I encourage you to not shy away and look deeper as sometimes the best artwork has the most meanings.

On 9 stars: I couldn't give this the supreme ten star rating because there are some occasional scenes where the make up is a little fake. I just couldn't get past it. To be fair the "bearer of the flaw" makes up for it but to say why would give away some excitement. More accurately Cloud Atlas is a 9 1/2 star movie.

I can't give much more info about the film. I feel like that would ruin the experience for you. So go watch it for yourself!

Smell the aroma.

Enjoy.

(after you watch the movie you will see that there are many hidden puns & meanings in this review, just like in the movie. but we can't give them away. how ironic)
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