Cloud Atlas / Rated R for language, nudity, sex, violence but not necessarily all at once.
Cloud Atlas is a 2 hour and 52 minute movie that is highly symbolic. Of what, you ask? Don’t expect me to tell you. It starts out kind of slow then seems to drag to a halt then, once you pass the 1 hour and 45 minute mark, things start to pick up. As the numerous stories seem to be coming to a conclusion things slow down again but then get really exciting for the last half hour. The question is if it’s worth your time. The answer is yes and no.
CA is based on a novel considered unfilmable. They went ahead anyway. It is a combination of stories from 1849 to the present then well into the future. Way past when Waterworld took place. The Producers decided to hire really big name talent. These folks include Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Susan Sarandon, Hugh Grant and others. They found cast salaries too high and had so many parts left uncast they did a very smart thing. They had each of the main actors play anywhere from 3 to 7 parts each. Budget problem solved. Both TH and HB play 6 each. The stories include elements of real history as well as far out SciFi.
All the stories are tied together by something mysterious. But, I’m still in the dark. Where is Jessica Fletcher when you need her? The stories do not run in sequence. A few minutes from a segment take place before switching to another of the segments in no certain order. The two future segments take place in Korea a little over a hundred years from now and on the Big Island of Hawaii after “The Fall of Man”. The Korean segment contains a lot of elements seen in other SciFi films like THX 1138, Soylent Green and Logan’s Run. The After the Fall etc segment has a little of Waterworld and Mad Max in the story.
The actors are terrific especially Jim Broadbent and his escape from the old folks home adventure. There is a lot of humor to go along with the violence, sex and language issues. It’s the actors and visuals that make this film slightly above average considering all the ambiguity you have to put up with.
The entire film features a symbol of a comet that appears on various characters. Not sure why or which comet. Not even sure it was a comet. Looked like one.
This film was made and written for the screen in part by the Wachowski Bros. They made the Matrix series of which I only saw the first one and said no more. They also made V for Vendetta, which actually made The Matrix look good. Their next big budget film was Speed Racer which was seen by 16 people in theaters and 7 more on DVD rentals from a Red Box in a Safeway store in the Wachowski Bros. home town of Chicago. The boys(?) consist of Andy and Laurence. Laurence has undergone some changes and is now known as Lana. Maybe it was the comet.
Rated 3.0 out of 4.0 reasons to hope that the mystery will clear in Cloud Atlas II. Assuming Cloud Atlas turns a profit. If you go stay for a few minutes of credits to see each of the main actors and all the roles they were in on screen. Some surprises in store.