Cloud Atlas

You may not find the relatively complex story overwhelming, but the sheer scale and magnificence of this 3-hour feature will certainly blow your mind away. An adaptation of the 2004 novel of the same name by David Mitchell, ‘Cloud Atlas’, the film has six interwoven stories from different eras. The film covers six stories set in different time periods – 19th century, early 20th century, late 20th century, early 21st century, dystopian 22nd century and 170 years after the ‘The Fall’. The story of a particular era is discovered by the main character of the story in the succeeding era. The principal character in all the stories has a distinct scar on some part of his/her body, which, kind of, goes on epitomize ‘afterlife and related theories’. The concept, albeit a novel adaptation, was quite formulaic, but the screenplay, by word, was magical. The official synopsis of the film reads, “An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.” The main character of every story has an accomplice who plays an instrumental role in protecting him/her from evil forces (depending on the era that the story has been set in). You have an American notary rebelling against the ill-treatment of a the Moriori tribe, a young English musician going up against his ageing mentor, a young female journalist challenging the establishment, an on-the-run press publisher trying to escape out of a nursing home and a tribesman, living in the post-apocalyptic distant future, fighting an evil tribe. All the stories, characters and thoughts do not necessarily connect in the film, but by-and-large, the underlying theme in each of the stories strikes a chord with the viewer. The 20-minute finale is so gripping and poignant that it will force you to ponder over the film long after it’s over. The cast of the film is as grand as the word ‘ensemble’ is. Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Bae Doona, David Gyasi, Susan Sarandon, Hugh Grant among others , give stellar performances and most importantly, look their parts. The premise of the film is quite unique, so to speak, and the most difficult thing is to get your actors to be able to deliver convincing performances. Such films are never shot in the same order as the screenplay is written. So, huge credit for the work of genius that we see on the big screen should go to the editor, Alexander Berner. Cinematography for such a lavish film had to be gorgeous. The film could have been cut short by around 30 minutes. It could have left a stronger impact on the viewer. The run-time, close to 3 hours, of the film, is one of the few deterrents. The underlying message is wonderful. ‘Cloud Atlas’ just numbs you with its stories, thoughts, visuals and the enchanting music. Avoid judging the film mid-way. If you do go for it, sit back, watch it patiently, and make your assessment. It’s a sum of its parts. Magnificently visualized film, written and directed by Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski and Andy Wachowski, ‘Cloud Atlas’ impresses at many levels. Its complex storyline and the 3-hour-runtime are the two deterrents. However, it’s a beautiful film with a poignant message.

You may not find the relatively complex story overwhelming, but the sheer scale and magnificence of this 3-hour feature will certainly blow your mind away. An adaptation of the 2004 novel of the same name by David Mitchell, ‘Cloud Atlas’, the film has six interwoven stories from different eras. The film covers six stories set in different time periods – 19th century, early 20th century, late 20th century, early 21st century, dystopian 22nd century and 170 years after the ‘The Fall’. The story of a particular era is discovered by the main character of the story in the succeeding era. The principal character in all the stories has a distinct scar on some part of his/her body, which, kind of, goes on epitomize ‘afterlife and related theories’. The concept, albeit a novel adaptation, was quite formulaic, but the screenplay, by word, was magical. The official synopsis of the film reads, “An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.” The main character of every story has an accomplice who plays an instrumental role in protecting him/her from evil forces (depending on the era that the story has been set in). You have an American notary rebelling against the ill-treatment of a the Moriori tribe, a young English musician going up against his ageing mentor, a young female journalist challenging the establishment, an on-the-run press publisher trying to escape out of a nursing home and a tribesman, living in the post-apocalyptic distant future, fighting an evil tribe. All the stories, characters and thoughts do not necessarily connect in the film, but by-and-large, the underlying theme in each of the stories strikes a chord with the viewer. The 20-minute finale is so gripping and poignant that it will force you to ponder over the film long after it’s over. The cast of the film is as grand as the word ‘ensemble’ is. Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Bae Doona, David Gyasi, Susan Sarandon, Hugh Grant among others , give stellar performances and most importantly, look their parts. The premise of the film is quite unique, so to speak, and the most difficult thing is to get your actors to be able to deliver convincing performances. Such films are never shot in the same order as the screenplay is written. So, huge credit for the work of genius that we see on the big screen should go to the editor, Alexander Berner. Cinematography for such a lavish film had to be gorgeous. The film could have been cut short by around 30 minutes. It could have left a stronger impact on the viewer. The run-time, close to 3 hours, of the film, is one of the few deterrents. The underlying message is wonderful. ‘Cloud Atlas’ just numbs you with its stories, thoughts, visuals and the enchanting music. Avoid judging the film mid-way. If you do go for it, sit back, watch it patiently, and make your assessment. It’s a sum of its parts. Magnificently visualized film, written and directed by Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski and Andy Wachowski, ‘Cloud Atlas’ impresses at many levels. Its complex storyline and the 3-hour-runtime are the two deterrents. However, it’s a beautiful film with a poignant message. Shivom Oza

I wouldn't say that there is any extreme content in the overall course of this three hour movie. Language is minimal (one site counted 22 uses of the f-word), violence is present, but no over done (yes, there is also blood), and while there is nudity and sex, it is brief. The movie was fascinating, and one of the most unique films I have ever seen. Where CSM gets it wrong is while, yes, the stories probably don't stand much on their own; that is somewhat the point. They were not filmed separately for this reason. It's meant to be a connected story, shown through six different ones. While I would not say that I have come to understand everything about the film (it definitely requires a second viewing), it was an amazing movie and I will definitely be seeing it again.

Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) and the Wachowski Siblings (Formerly brothers, before Larry Wachowski received a sex-change operation, and turned into Lana Wachowski) team up for a movie that shouldn't get the budget that it got, the hard work of everyone involved including it's cast and enormous group of visual, and otherwise, people, putting there extensive time and effort to produce a film of such monstrous magnitude. Leaving the theatre, after sitting through all of Cloud Atlas's relentlessly ponderous and superficial 172 minute-running time, you don't exactly hate it. Well, you don't really like it, but you don't hate it, either. You don't like it, but, than again, you really just simply dont know what to think of it. The movie is interwoven with several segments of storylines, including a lawyer travelling to the coast via a ship in 1849, and witnessing first hand, what the effects of slavery and brutallity on the very people forced to commit to slavery are put through; A young homosexual musician who is brought to work for a top British Composer; a journalist in 1970's San Fransisco, who attempts to publish the truth about what is happening behind the conspiracy of a power plant; A kind elderly book publisher who is forced by his cruel brother to live at a horrible mental facility for the old, and is tormented by a sadistic, and hideously manly female nurse; A robotic-human fabricant fastfood worker (say that five times fast) who is seeked out by a small group of rebels who try to use her to expose the corrupt world that they find themselves living in; and, exhaustedly, the final story concerns the lives of a group of survivalist colonies in a post apocalyptic world, fending off a much larger group of savages. Now, all of those stories sound like they have nothing to do with each other, and the film doesn't just play all of these stories in the order that I just constructed them in. No, Cloud Altas seems fit to run the whole gammit of stories at us, constantly, and, unfortunately, inconsistently, cutting back and forth between every single storyline. Now, this film has polarized critis, it has polarized viewers, and it has polarized me, and, it saddens me to say this because I will always be a lifelong fan of the Wachowski sibling's Matrix trilogy, but Cloud Atlas is not much more than a overly ambitious, messy, monotonous bore, and that it will not get any better if you watch it a second time, nor will it make any more sense during a second viewing, because you must strain hard enough just to hear or even understand large snippets of dialoge throughout this nearly 3 hour film, that, finally, you just simply must give up, and give in to this sluggish little monstrosity of a movie. Now, when I mentioned much earlier about this films cast being excellent, I was not kidding. Stars such as Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Ben Wishaw, Jim Sturgess, Hugo Weaving, Keith David, Susan Surandon and Hugh Grant; populate this silly, far-too-overconfident mess. Now, if you have seen the films adds advertising the nice polished special effects and action sequences and still cannot fully bring yourself to the belief that this film really should be Rated R, well, than, I urge you to sit through this mess and tell me that after: Cloud Atlas features multiple scenes of brutal violence, including, but not limited to, many, many throat slashings, entire vilages being massacred with severed heads visibly seen on pikes, suicides, shootings, futuristic gunfights and battle sequences, threatening lives of several elderly people, and more, with lot's of spurting and gushing blood visible during nearly ever occurance of said violence. Also, strong sexual content is abundent, here, as well, with four sex scenes: One features lot's of loud groaning and yelling but with no visible nudity, the second only features both participants chests, shoulders and back, but ends with implied oral sex on the woman, the next is light-hearted and features a young couple interupted by her parents and allows us to see her bare back and his bare chest and legs when he comically covers his genitals with a cat, and, finally, the last sex scene is incredibly graphic, with thrusting, moaning and shots of bare breasts, buttocks, legs, chests, arms and abdomens; add to that some brief bare breast nudity out of context and one very explicit visual innunedo, and I think that you get the picture. And, finally, Cloud Atlas contains extremely sporadic moments of pervasive language, including several uses of f--k, sh-t, c-nt, h-ll, d-mn, b-tch, p-ssy, bloody, ruddy, and more. So, Cloud Atlas is absolutely not a movie to walk into and view casually, as it drags on to an exhaustedly monotonous level, and, will likely bore, me inlcuded, very heavilly. Not Reccomended.