Movie Review For Cloud Atlas

Posted by Charmaine Blake on Oct 25th, 2012 in Action Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, New Releases, Sci-Fi | 0 comments

Movie Review For Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas is definitely creating some stir with movie fans and critics alike. The movie stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving and Jim Broadbent and revolves around the course of life in different lifetimes. Cloud Atlas is definitely not your usual story, it transverse to a different genre that may seem alien to some people but then it could also be a way for people to open their eyes to different possibilities and the choices that we make. Let’s take a look at a movie review written by Drew Taylor for the movie, Cloud Atlas

“Going Through The Motions of Cloud Atlas

This Friday sees the release of the long-awaited “Cloud Atlas,” a three-way collaboration with some of the most talented filmmakers working today: Tom Tykwer, the German director behind the art-house smash “Run Lola Run” and the criminally underrated period thriller “Perfume: Story of a Murderer,” and the Wachowskis, best known for their influential “Matrix” trilogy and 2008′s massive flop “Speed Racer.” The film is based on David Mitchell’s acclaimed novel “Cloud Atlas,” which works as a series of concentric circles — six stories, in total, which reverse direction once the book hits its midway point — covering a wide breadth of the human experience (and a multitude of literary genres), from an American notary traveling across the Pacific ocean in 1850 to a gay romance set in pre-World War II Europe to a clone revolt in the distant future.

Does the cinematic reincarnation of Mitchell’s excellent book do it justice? Or is it a whole bunch of hogwash not worthy of your time? Read on to find out!

PRO: It’s Unlike Anything You’ve Ever Seen Before…

To achieve the replication of the book’s style and form, the directors decided to have the same handful of actors (among them Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Ben Whishaw, Susan Sarandon, Jim Broadbent and Hugh Grant) play roles in each section. So, for instance, you’ll see Hanks play a thuggish modern-day author who throws a critic off a roof, a nefarious nineteenth-century doctor and a post-apocalyptic survivor wrestling with demonic urges. The movie also cuts around between the various stories throughout the whole running time, never settling in one scenario for more than a few minutes at a time. The effect is something like the last 30 minutes of “Inception” (with multiple storylines existing on different planes of dreamlike reality), except stretched across a genuinely epic three-hour run-time. This structure does much to emphasize the movie’s views on the elasticity of time and space and the recurring theme of reincarnation. The scope and scale of “Cloud Atlas” are unbelievable, and it’s a genuine feat to have the directors’ corral their individual visions into a (mostly) cohesive whole.

CON: … That’s Not Necessarily A Good Thing

At first, the incessant cutting is invigorating, with a feeling of bewilderment and confusion that isn’t exactly unpleasant (it certainly beats a movie that goes to great lengths to over-explain everything) and somehow mimics our current cultural state of multiple browser tabs, texting, tweeting and constant Facebook-updating. Sadly, at a certain point, right before the last act, that sensation of exuberant experimentation wears thin, replaced by a feeling that borders on exhaustion. Sometimes the crosscutting actively lessens the drama and excitement, as in the case of an extended aerial chase sequence set in a neon-drenched futuristic Korea and much of the cross-Pacific voyage, since we’re never given enough time to let any moment truly set in.”

Click here to read the rest at MovieFone

Don’t miss Cloud Atlas and enjoy the journey across time and space this Friday, October 26th 2012.

Browse through trailers, pictures, videos, upcoming movies and movie reviews right here at newmovielaunches.com

Charmaine Blake loves movies, musical theater listening to music and taking pictures of anything that she finds interesting. She is a voracious reader and writer, and enjoys her time writing for New Movie Launches. Charmaine loves spending time with her pets and currently has a Siberian Husky, a toy poodle and a cat.