Cloud Atlas (2012) Directed by Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski & Lana Wachowski
This appears to be a movie which the opinions are mostly split on.
Either people love it or they cringe at it. Personally I was taken by
its grandeur and consider this to be a true epic, not because of its
action or visuals but more so because of its elaborate story and the
storytelling in particular, that takes the movie to multiple different
places and times.
It's quite amazing the amount of story lines this movie is following and the amount of different character it follows around, throughout different period pieces and places. What's even more amazing is that it all feels extremely well balanced. This is most likely due to its pace, which is wonderful. Even though the movie is almost nearly 3 hours long, it never feels like you are watching a 3 hour long movie. I's such a fast paced movie, that never dwells on anything. It never sticks too long to a certain character or storyline either. The storytelling might confuse or scare off some people but really, once you are just simply paying full attention to the movie and nothing but the movie, it isn't all that hard or complicated to follow.
What I also loved about the story and the storytelling was its diversity. The one story is set in the distant past, while another is being set in the far off future. The one storyline is serious, while another is being more comical. One involves science-fiction, the other dry drama. It are things like this that make this an incredible divers movie to watch. You could say there is something for everyone to enjoy in this. Some plot lines might interest you, while others might not work out as well for you personally. But it's still very easy to feel involved with each and every different storyline and character in this movie because of its superior storytelling and actors involved.
Many different great actors play many different great characters in this movie. Sometimes you won't even notice a certain actor in a certain role, making this movie great and fun to watch on repeated viewings. Sometimes it's still very apparent, also when they have some bad makeup applied. This works a bit distracting at times and I also just don't get how a $100,000,000 could possibly have some bad makeup effects in it. Oh well, guess they couldn't get everything right for this long, grand and complicated epic.
You could debate about it whether or not all of the story lines feel connected well enough and that the actions of certain characters in the past truly affected that of the others, with the stories set in a future time. Personally, it didn't always felt strong and tight enough for me but still I could obviously enjoy all of the different story lines and also the movie as a whole, even while it's main premise came across a bit flawed to me.
It's also a great looking movie with all of its visuals. It successfully recreates certain time periods and environments, with its tone, costumes and cinematography. If nothing else, this movie is at least going to get nominated for some visual related Academy Awards, for sure.
It's not a movie everyone is going to enjoy or appreciate but then again, there is a big fat change you might end up loving it just as much, or even more, as I did.
9/10
It's quite amazing the amount of story lines this movie is following and the amount of different character it follows around, throughout different period pieces and places. What's even more amazing is that it all feels extremely well balanced. This is most likely due to its pace, which is wonderful. Even though the movie is almost nearly 3 hours long, it never feels like you are watching a 3 hour long movie. I's such a fast paced movie, that never dwells on anything. It never sticks too long to a certain character or storyline either. The storytelling might confuse or scare off some people but really, once you are just simply paying full attention to the movie and nothing but the movie, it isn't all that hard or complicated to follow.
What I also loved about the story and the storytelling was its diversity. The one story is set in the distant past, while another is being set in the far off future. The one storyline is serious, while another is being more comical. One involves science-fiction, the other dry drama. It are things like this that make this an incredible divers movie to watch. You could say there is something for everyone to enjoy in this. Some plot lines might interest you, while others might not work out as well for you personally. But it's still very easy to feel involved with each and every different storyline and character in this movie because of its superior storytelling and actors involved.
Many different great actors play many different great characters in this movie. Sometimes you won't even notice a certain actor in a certain role, making this movie great and fun to watch on repeated viewings. Sometimes it's still very apparent, also when they have some bad makeup applied. This works a bit distracting at times and I also just don't get how a $100,000,000 could possibly have some bad makeup effects in it. Oh well, guess they couldn't get everything right for this long, grand and complicated epic.
You could debate about it whether or not all of the story lines feel connected well enough and that the actions of certain characters in the past truly affected that of the others, with the stories set in a future time. Personally, it didn't always felt strong and tight enough for me but still I could obviously enjoy all of the different story lines and also the movie as a whole, even while it's main premise came across a bit flawed to me.
It's also a great looking movie with all of its visuals. It successfully recreates certain time periods and environments, with its tone, costumes and cinematography. If nothing else, this movie is at least going to get nominated for some visual related Academy Awards, for sure.
It's not a movie everyone is going to enjoy or appreciate but then again, there is a big fat change you might end up loving it just as much, or even more, as I did.
9/10
Watch trailer
