Cloud Atlas: A Review

I saw Cloud Atlas Tuesday.

Any of you gorons see Kubrik's "2001: A Space Odyssey?"

When that came out, and there were a helluva lotta head scratchin' goin' on.......alla monkeys and giant black refrigerators and a neurotic electron asshole named HAL....

Now it is seen as a great masterpiece of film.....

When was the last time you watched 5 different films all at the same time?

All with excellent actors? With a high-budget?

I try not to give spoilers about what happens specifically.....but I will offer some advice on watching the film.....I will say it is worth seeing on the big screen of a theater for the cinematography and CGI.....

It is just under 3 hours long.....but you really do not notice the passage of time.....

It was number 2 on box office this past (opening) weekend.

I don't think it is going to do well. I think the Wachowskis and Co. will be lucky to break even.

It was probably like some studio president read the script and went....."Hey I don't understand it, but these guys made bank for us a few years back and they got Tom Hanks and Halle Barre and Susan Sarandon and more in it...so yeah...we'll fund their art film......

The first impression I got was that it was an art film with a hugely pretentious budget.

When I left the theater, I was thinking that there was not ONE SINGLE plot in the entire thing.......but that was because there was not.......there were FIVE different plots all happening simultaneously......

I say the Wachowskis can be considered ahead of their time.....while watching it you wonder where the film is going to go and so you sit and wait for the plot to unfold.....it was not until I was home I realized I had watched five films at one time! This sort of cinematic film device has been used before...so that part of it is hardly original........but it is so well done, they pulled it off very effectively!

That said, I think (like Kubrik's "2001") it is going to go way over the public's collective head.......eventually it may be regarded as something great by the public at large, but I tend to think that it is going to be too confusing for many people.....the stories are spread over a time period of around 1,000 years.....

Film fans, fans of the Wachowski's work, and people who like thought provoking movies will really dig it. It is an emotional rollercoaster and some parts of it were extremely disturbing.....well, the film is geared towards adults anyway.....do NOT bring kids or immature adolescents to see this. Unless you think they can handle some occasionally really fucked up shit.

I say it should at least be nominated for Best Screenplay....as it is highly original in scope. And very well executed. The cinematography is great, and the actors (for the most part) put in great performances.

Oh and one more thing.....the actors speak with different accents, and occasionally it can be hard to follow.....because the accents might be set....oh....8 or 900 years in the future.......but the stories carry themselves, so just keep on with the film, and it will be made plain unto you.....

Not to make a direct comparison, but Akira Kurosawa's film "The Seven Samurai", widely regarded by many as the finest film ever made, is so well done that even though you cannot follow the dialogue without subtitles....the interpretation by Kurosawa of the performance of the actors is enough to convey everything you wanted to know about the story......

If you wanna see a film with a single-track linear plot line, cliche acting and dialogue, do not see Cloud Atlas.

If you want to see something extraordinary in film check it out.

I am sure the actors loved it.....as some of them had multiple parts.....some of them not the same sex as the others, lol.

See it in the theater while you can, as IF (and I cannot predict this) it does not earn huge bank, it will be gone from the theaters really soon. And it is at least worth losing 3 hours of your time with popcorn and soda just to see something with depth........

To me it struck me like a 21st-century version of "2001..." in terms of it's far-reaching scope.....something way beyond a standard-issue studio film.

I look forward to seeing it again someday.

Thus endeth the review....