Cloud Atlas (2012)
Average Rating: 6.6/10
Reviews Counted: 240
Fresh: 162 | Rotten: 78
Its sprawling, ambitious blend of thought-provoking narrative and eye-catching visuals will prove too unwieldy for some, but the sheer size and scope of Cloud Atlas are all but impossible to ignore.
Average Rating: 6.1/10
Critic Reviews: 47
Fresh: 19 | Rotten: 28
Its sprawling, ambitious blend of thought-provoking narrative and eye-catching visuals will prove too unwieldy for some, but the sheer size and scope of Cloud Atlas are all but impossible to ignore.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 157,722
My Rating
Movie Info
Cloud Atlas explores how the actions and consequences of individual lives impact one another throughout the past, the present and the future. Action, mystery and romance weave dramatically through the story as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero and a single act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution in the distant future. Each member of the ensemble appears in multiple roles as the stories move through time. -- (C) Warner Bros.
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Cast
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Tom Hanks
Cavendish Look-a-Like A... -
Halle Berry
Indian Party Guest, Joc... -
Jim Broadbent
Captain Molyneux, Korea... -
Hugo Weaving
Bill Smoke, Boardman Me... -
Jim Sturgess
Adam Ewing, Adam/Zachry... -
Bae Doo Na
Megan's Mom, Mexican Wo... -
Ben Whishaw
Cabin Boy, Georgette, R... -
Keith David
An-Kor Apis, Joe Napier... -
Susan Sarandon
Abbess, Madame Horrox, ... -
Hugh Grant
Alberto Grimaldi, Canni... -
David Gyasi
Autua, Duophysite, Lest... -
James D'Arcy
Archivist, Nurse James,... -
Xun Zhou
Rose, Talbot/Hotel Mana... -
Brody Nicholas Lee
Javier Gomez, Jonas, Za... -
Robert Fyfe
Mr. Meeks, Old Salty Do... -
Alex Wuttke
Guard, Leary the Healer... -
Robin Morrissey
Young Cavendish -
Ian Van Temperley
Enforcer -
Amanda Walker
Veronica -
Ralph Riach
Ernie -
Andrew Havill
Mr. Hotchkiss -
Tanja De Wendt
Mrs. Hotchkiss -
Raeven Lee Hanan
Catkin, Little Girl wit... -
Götz Otto
Groundsman Withers -
Nial Fulton
Haskell Moore's Dinner ... -
Louis Dempsey
Haskell Moore's Dinner ... -
Martin Docherty
Eddie Hoggins, Haskell ... -
Alistair Petrie
Felix Finch, Haskell Mo... -
Zhu Zhu
12th Star Clone, Megan ... -
Sylvestra Le Touzel
Aide in Slaughtership, ... -
Shaun Lawton
Secretary -
Ruby Kastner
Young Girl -
Emma Werz
Ursula's Granddaughter -
Mya-Leica Naylor
Miro -
Korbyn Hanan
Adam Grandson -
Anna Holmes
Scientist/Executive -
Moritz Berg
Porter -
Gigi Lee
Zachry Relative -
Genevien Lee
Zachry Relative -
Victor Esteban Sole
Mr. Roderick -
Marie Ronnenbeck
Ursula's Daughter -
Thomas Kugel
Ursula's Father -
Laura Vietzen
Young Ursula -
Heike Hanold-Lynch
Nurse Judd Look-a-Like -
Dulcie Smart
Herbalist, Ursula's Mot... -
Cody Lee
Zachry Relative -
Katy Karrenbauer
Axwoman -
Gary McCormack
Crane Operator -
Marco Albrecht
Scan Enforcer -
David Mitchell
Union Spy -
Jojo Schoning
Papa Song Punk -
Kristoffer Fuss
Lead Enforcer -
Doona Bae
Sonmi-451
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Cloud Atlas Trailer & Photos
All Critics (240) | Top Critics (47) | Fresh (162) | Rotten (78)
A film which piles on the action, the romance, the philosophical inquiry and the silly accents until the viewer is left punch-drunk and reeling. Seriously, what's not to love?
They key to successfully absorbing the movie may be in not trying to overthink what's on screen.
An eminently peculiar mismatch of substance and form, like a Hallmark card written by David Foster Wallace.
The result is maddening, exasperating, occasionally exhilarating -- and mostly boring.
For all the spectacular settings and visionary designs, Cloud Atlas left me feeling disconnected
Felicitous moments can't break through the dark nebula of self-importance around Cloud Atlas ...
A true gem.
Despite the fact that ot sometimes looks like $102 million celebrity dress up party where Tom Hanks got a really good bulk deal on latex noses Cloud Atlas sometimes strikes moments of sheer beauty.
A little too unfocused at times, there's something deeply involving about this time-spanning romantic thesis.
An epic, genre-hopping, unique adventure that effectively shoe-horns six films into one...Cloud Atlas achieves that rarest of all things for a film this big: it is engaging and consistently entertaining as well as providing brain food.
...few films have ever been this weird, this epic and this disjointed.
It's not often we're given something that looks so dazzling, features such an impressive, eclectic cast, and which will leave your noggin buzzing with ideas.
For a long, sprawling, high-concept, philosophical, stylistic mash-up of a film, Cloud Atlas is impressive and thought-provoking without ever being pretentious.
A think piece linking past, present and future that's surprisingly haunting and moving in its delivery.
Cloud Atlas is like nothing I've ever seen before. It's a bold cinematic treasure from a brave collaborative filmmaking collective.
Editor Alexander Berner has interwoven these narratives and by cutting back-and-forth between them at a rapid pace, created something that will hold your attention for three hours.
A compelling, uncynical, often thrilling package, the likes of which we've never seen before, and will perhaps never see replicated. I will watch Cloud Atlas more than once.
Tykwer and the Wachowskis are aiming for greatness here. They don't make it, and that leaves the unorthodox film open to savagery, far more than it deserves.
The finished product is no Matrix, but it's certainly worth a look - even if you do find yourself throwing popcorn at the screen from time to time.
Large-scale mainstream moviemaking of a type that could be just as easily be celebrated or castigated as a filmmaking folly.
It has a certain grandeur, if ultimately it's an inspiritingly ambitious folly.
Tykwer and the Wachowskis take Mitchell's complex narrative and give it breathtaking momentum on screen. Admittedly, they lose the novel's element of dazzling pastiche, but they bring out its qualities of rollicking adventure and cliffhanging suspense.
Brilliant or pretentious - or both? An avalanche of ideas cascade relentlessly in this full throttle and stimulating film that is often frustrating and overlong, as it puts forward its proposition that we are all connected.
In many respects, it's exceptional - both in concept and execution.
Mad geniuses Tom Tykwer (Perfume) and the Wachowski siblings (The Matrix) boldly take on David Mitchell's layered epic novel, which connects six generations through the power of storytelling.
This demands your attention for its entire running time, but rewards you with a truly moving climax.
Audience Reviews for Cloud Atlas
I can see if not many are willing to go places where Cloud Atlas takes us. It asks a lot from viewer and with its three hour lenght and it is a demanding and challenging epic that has many different timelines and many different characters. Those who like science fiction with brains and ambition will quite possibly find it as one of the most interesting films in a long time. I myself loved the concept and ideas it had. It throws lot of questions to a viewer and make us in the audience to really think.
It is surprising to see that this comes from the same directors who made The Matrix - trilogy which were much more hollow as a films and aimed more for a kung-fu set pieces and famous bullet-time effects than actual ideas. Actually Cloud Atlas is a collaboration between three different directors; Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer who all bring something of their own into this story which is based David Mitchell's novel. This mixture could have ended up into a huge mess or disaster but instead all of these directors succeeds in balancing with their material and pull off an virtuoso adventure like no other.
I myself have never seen anything like this before. Cloud Atlas reminds me of other ambitious sci-fi films like Steven Spielberg's A.I. and Ridley Scott's Prometheus with some nods to Blade Runner also. There are also elements that brought Darren Aronofsky's equally bold and majestic The Fountain into my mind. Cloud Atlas and The Founain both manages to bring rare amounts of heart into the world of often cold science fiction with devastating impact, and they both also hold this mysterious element that makes them effective and intriguing.
To describe Cloud Atlas is a real challange and that is part of its appeal. To call it a science fiction mystery with a echoes of 70's paranoia thrillers and majestic old adventure films does not even come to close its entity as a film. Cloud Atlas is something much bigger than the genres and the world it operates in. This is larger than life filmmaking and certainly deservers to be seen. As a film this is by far the best thing any of these directors has done in their careers. Mixture of Tykwer's sensibilities as a director and Wachowskie's more adventurous filmmaking is a perfect match and bring especially welcome sophisticated touch to Wachowskie's hyper-stylized action set pieces which are not seen here this time around. Cinematography by great John Toll and talented Frank Griebe are major contribution to films overall visual look and the future has rarely looked so a amazing as it does in here. One of the films most important elements is also the fantastic musical score by Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek and Tom Tykwer, whose music bring certain feeling of awe, excitment and mystery into this magnificent film.
Still beneath all the fantastic technical wizardy and gimmicks lies an very impressive ensemble cast. To cast same actors into many different roles could have been a disaster but it actually works brilliantly. There are moments that are slightly distracting because of the actors weak accents or their corny make-up which are at times be too artificial, but overall the impact is quite stunning. With actors like Ben Whishaw, Tom Hanks, Jim Broadbent, Halle Berry, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Hugh Grant, Susan Sarandon and Hugo Weaving on board, Cloud Atlas has a one hell of a impressive cast and each and everyone of these actors captures their roles with a perfect charisma and ability to bend themselves into another characters in a different time.
Overall Cloud Atlas is one unforgettable journey. It might not be without flaws but it certainly earns to be mentioned as one of the most original films to come along in recent years. This is one of a kind filmmaking and deserves to be seen. Do not miss it.
Super Reviewer
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- Old Georgie: The weak are meat and the strong do eat!
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- Adam Ewing: What is any ocean but a multitude of drops?
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- Robert Frobisher: This world spins from the same unseen forces that twist our hearts.
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- Timothy Cavendish: Soylent Green are people!
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- Timothy Cavendish: Freedom, the fatuous jingle of our civilization. But only those of us deprived of it have an inkling of what it really is.
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- Robert Frobisher: I understand now that boundaries between noise & sound are conventions. All boundaries are conventions, waiting to be transcended. One may transcend any convention, if only one can first conceive of doing so.
Discussion Forum
| Topic | Last Post | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| BOMB. | 8 days ago | 3 |
| Cloud Atlas | 16 days ago | 36 |
| Peter Travers Review | 38 days ago | 7 |
| Hanks and Berry | 55 days ago | 11 |
Latest News on Cloud Atlas
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March 15, 2013:
Wachowskis' Jupiter Ascending to Rise in 2014The sci-fi epic is set to bow on July 25 of next year.
February 6, 2013:
Sean Bean Joins Jupiter AscendingHe'll play "a Han solo-type character" in the upcoming Wachowskis project.
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Foreign Titles
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Top Critic
The film is very much like 'A.I.' in my opinion, the reason being I'm sure it will split opinions right down the middle. I can well understand people loving the film but I can well understand people disliking the film for various reasons. There is a lot to take in and at almost 3 hours the film could come across as hard work.
So in case you don't know the film is basically like an old Tarantino concept, in other words its six different stories that are all woven into one, kinda. The stories are set over a vast time span from the 18th Century, the 30's, the 70's, the present day, early 22nd Century and the early 24th Century. I will give a brief little review for each section without trying to ruin the plots for you hehe.
1. The mid 18th Century, an American lawyer travels to the Chatham Islands (Pacific Ocean, southeast of New Zealand) to conclude business for his father-in-law. This story is set around black slavery and is probably the most predictable really. The sequences look realistic, rustic and lavish with a stunning old sea galleon and some tremendous location visuals. But to be honest this tale was rather average, much time is spend on the ship watching the main character 'Ewing' die slowly, but the moral of the story is obviously a good one.
2. Mid 30's UK, a bisexual young man works as an amanuensis for an old composer. The tale is set around a homosexual relationship and how (in this era) that could destroy a man's career and life. Easily the most bold and emotional section of the film simply because you don't often see gay relations like this in major films and it paints a taboo subject in a good light, somewhat. Ben Whishaw's role as the bisexual young man is (for me) the best performance of the film by far, the same can be said for James D'Arcy as 'Sixsmith' his lover. Again everything looks period perfect, the costumes are glorious and Broadbent's nasty blackmailing composer rounds off this story flawlessly.
3. 1973, California and this is Keith David's 'Shaft' moment. A journalist is trying to uncover the true facts behind the safety of a new nuclear reactor run by its shady US owner played by...Hugh Grant?. Again I must give kudos for the visuals here, costumes, cars, sets, props etc...its all very 70's. Unfortunately this story looks like a bog standard US cops/detective TV show, you half expect 'Starsky and Hutch' to pull up. On top of that its acted and played out like a crummy bog standard US cop TV show, was that the idea?, guess it was.
4. Present day, almost, 2012, UK. An aging book publisher comes into the money big time when his current author kills a critic. The author happens to be a local criminal gangster, thusly his actions sends his book soaring up the charts making tonnes of cash. A tale of two halves this one, firstly you have what I just described, then when this gangster sends his men after 'Cavendish' the publisher for their share of the profits, he must escape into hiding. What follows is a kind of twisted 'Roald Dahl' type children's fairytale as 'Cavendish' is tricked into an old age home from hell.
Broadbent once again in a tour de force of acting really nails this character perfectly with his typically eccentric British oddball looks. A kind of dark comedy this story, mostly narrated by Broadbent but with wonderful performances by a cast of pensioners and also from Weaving as the evil 'Nurse Noakes'...that character is so 'Roald Dahl-like' its untrue. A little gem this one, quite amusing with some terrific facial expressions and visual tomfoolery from Broadbent.
'is this some sort of kinky S&M hotel?!'
5. Set in a dystopian futuristic totalitarian state in Korea, the year is 2144. Clones are used for manual labour in various roles/jobs but are treated badly, like slaves. This story is told as an account by one clone in custody after her massive ordeal with a rebel movement set against the bad treatment of clones. By far the most exciting story in the film and easily the section where the Wachowski's love of sci-fi really shines through, you can tell its them.
We've all seen 'The Matrix' (right?!), well here you can see that influence breaking through. That's not a bad thing I must stress, this short story could easily be a film in its own right, the characters are really good very intriguing, the visuals are stunning, I LOVED Neo Seoul and its blue neon highways! and the action is superb. The plot is kinda over used and cliched but it works well, you get behind 'Sonmi' the clone, you want her to succeed even though you already know what happens. Naturally comparisons to other sci-fi films are inevitable, 'Blade Runner' and 'I Robot' springs to mind right off the bat, but that doesn't detract from this excellent future set tale of a police state set in the wild East.
6. The year 2321 and it appears mankind has be almost wiped out. What is left are small tribes of people living on an island (Hawaii) in primitive conditions. There are also other tribes of people who have turned to cannibalism it seems and other people that somehow remain in touch with modern technology. This is the story that bookends the film, it is also one of the weakest in my opinion as its a typically silly sci-fi post apocalyptic story that raises many questions. Once again I can't say anything bad about the location visuals or acting but its just daft.
Why would some people choose to live like primitives, some people choose to go about eating people, whilst all the while you could still live with modern technology, medicines, clothes, proper order etc...Did anyone else notice these folk all talked like 'Jar Jar Binks'??! the hallucinations of 'Zachery', the main character, aren't really explained, the cannibals are primitive like the rest but they have metal crossbows? etc..
All these short stories are interwoven amongst themselves throughout the entire film. This is admittedly one of the films issues as I'm sure some will feel confused and lost whilst trying to keep up with each tale. There are so many characters throughout, plus the fact that the actors play multiple characters in every story does make the film hard to follow at times. You find yourself trying to recall who plays who, or trying not to get mixed up with characters played by the same people in different stories. All the characters in the stories are reincarnated versions of their previous lives which we are seeing in each century/each story. So in some stories they are bad in some they are neutral etc...I'm not overly sure if their actions are suppose to effect the next incarnation though, or maybe redeem themselves in certain aspects, cos Weaving plays a bad guy all the way through...I think.
Despite that anyone can see the powerful performances by the cast in this. I like Hugo Weaving as an actor very much and I can't fault the guy here, he plays mostly nasty pieces of work but damn it he's so flippin good. As mentioned Jim Broadbent is on fire, the guy can do no wrong, he's like an ugly version of Anthony Hopkins (no disrespect Jim). Still unsure why they would cast Grant in some odd choice roles, an all American company boss?!, a heavy?!!! (thug) and the cannibal chief! wouldn't be my choice.
An odd entity really, you wouldn't think it was a Wachowski film (accept for the sci-fi bit) and the stories range from excellent to mundane. I found myself not really caring about certain plots and wanting them to spin on so we could get back to the more thrilling plots. I must also add that despite the effects and CGI being very very good throughout, the makeup on various characters is actually pretty bad haha. Using the same actors for various roles in various settings means people had to look Korean, Caucasian, female, old, bald, have different hair, coloured contacts etc...lets just say some times the actors looked good, sometimes like looked scary.
On the whole I enjoyed this epic story telling immensely, didn't think I would but I did. The film does appear to be quite politically correct also in some stories when you think about it (homosexual relations, multicultural relations...the future of the human race in the final tale) and to be honest it does drag. There are plenty of times when you think the film is gonna end, maybe it should, but it doesn't, it goes ooooon.
If this were indeed Spielberg then I'm sure some would say its close to a masterpiece, I don't think it is, for now, but its pretty close. The sheer amount of work and time to bring all this together is impressive, on top of that its a bloody good looking film with great acting. Thing is it may well take a few viewings to get to grips with it, I must admit to having to use the films (and novels) wiki to recap on all the stories. In time this could well be a classic.