DVD/BluRay Movie Reivew: Cloud Atlas (2012) - Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer

"Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others. Past and present. And by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future." - Sonmi-451

          Cloud Atlas, wow just wow, where do I start? I guess I should start by telling you where this films story came from, it's based on David Mitchell's novel of the same name which is made up of 6 individual stories split in two and interwoven by characters, themes and souls. The 6 stories takes place in different periods between 1849 - 2321 and follow their own "Comet's" struggle to make a change in the world. The characters in all of the time periods are played by the same actors and each actor has up to 6 different roles they play. The movie differs from the layout of the novel in that instead of showing half of each story in chronological order and the whole of the 2321 story and then the second half of each other story in reverse chronological order, it instead chops up each story and interweaves them using similar setting/actions/opposite outcomes of a situation's as the cutting point.

          Cloud Atlas is one of those films that rewards repeat viewings and it is only by repeat viewing that you will notice little minor details that link the stories besides the overarching themes and obvious similarities. For me the most striking theme was that of slavery and how those in charge/a position of power will often abuse that power and take advantage of people with the obvious example in 1849 of it being actual slavery to the 2012 stories locking up old people in a nursing home to the 2144 Neo Seoul example of a genetically breed servant class being created. Now their are other themes such as redemption (of a soul), love, corruption of power and many more, their is no wrong way to interpret this film.

          I would love to talk about the story but with the film being nearly three hours long and each of the 6 stories all being so different it would make this review unreadable, and that is one of the negative points of this film, it's length. At times it feels very much like a film lovers film, in that it can be jarring and hard to follow at time and definitely rewards repeat viewing as I previously mentioned, but if you love film like I do this film is perfect for you, but if your more of a casual film lover maybe this film isn't for you. I'm sure everyone who invests the time in this film will love it, but getting people to commit the time is the problem, it flies in the face of traditional Hollywood wisdom and maybe for that reason alone it deserves a watch.

          I would be doing the film a great injustice if I didn't mention how stunning it is, the special effects are amazing and like all good special effects are not noticeable, the prosthetics and facial make-up at first are jarring but once you get used to them you don't notice them and instead see how one person can evolve or de-evolve through out the course of the film.

          So in conclusion for me the film was a 9/10, but I don't think I could recommend this film to everyone, but if you love film and don't mind investing the time and energy into following a complicated story then Cloud Atlas is definitely worth the effort.