CLOUD ATLAS (2012)

CLOUD ATLAS (2012)

Cloud atlas is basically like watching 6 movies at the same time. How many times you flip through the channels with your remote when you watch regular tv may completely determine if you like this movie or not. At a run running time just 8 minutes shy of 3 hours, this movie will demand an entire afternoon and ample amounts of coffee. After stumbling through the first 120 minutes things finally hit the interesting point around during its final hour when you snap out of the coma the first two hours of the movie put you in.

Partly made by the directors of the matrix of the 6 stories we actually get 2 that are pretty interesting. The first takes place in the future (Korea 2144) where servants are basically born to serve. Later in the payoff end of the film, you find out what happens after they are no longer needed. This portion of the film is wonderfully shot and has some decent action shots that would have made a decent short movie all by itself. Oddly SOYLENT GREEN is mentioned in another story in the movie but this one is more closely related to the reference.

The second interesting story is set in 1849 in the Pacific as Adam an attorney from San Francisco, heads to the Pacific Islands to meet with a plantation owner. A Christian man he befriends Autuna a slave who is being treated particularly brutally. While this is going on Tom Hanks (who plays like a billion characters in this movie) is trying to poison Adam and take his money. Dialog-wise and resolution wise to me this was the best story of the bunch.

 There are 4 other stories going on in this as well that mostly equate to a bunch of philosophical un-entertaining dialog with some hints of humor which did make the 2012 story kind of fun. 

Sci-Fi fans will leave massively disappointed. Fans of reincarnation and how the universe ties together will find this interesting enough to rent, but overall I can see why it flopped at the box office. I know Hugo Weaving flakes out from time to time but he delivers huge performances in this and Tom Hanks should be commended as well even though I can’t stand him. Doona  Bea is also outstanding in this as Tilda,  Megan's Mom, the Mexican Woman (who’s dog you shouldn’t mess with), Sonmi-451 and a Sonmi Prostitute. No one I know liked this movie, but if you are in the mood for 6 movies in 3 hours, CLOUD ATLAS is your flick.

I give this one a 4 out of 7. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF CLOUD ATLAS PRODUCTIONS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.