Cloud Atlas

It can be so much more if you let it. Happy and sad, bloody and tender. A long but beautiful film. And damn, I'm out of words. Anyway, if you want to believe in fated love, this might help. The best "short story" for me was the one from Seoul. Ah well. Even though he was deformed, Jim Sturgess was perfect. (11/23/2012)

SIX IN ONE. I didn’t want to write an overly celebratory comment right after leaving the cinema, and I decided to let the experience brew for a day, and the result? I’m still so excited! Cloud Atlas is the best film in at least a couple of years, but also a category on its own that can not be properly compared with any other. Amazing! I can’t understand how the Wachowskis and Tykwer managed to simultaneously tell six mostly conversational stories with different styles and genres (historical drama, tragic romance, journalist investigation, black comedy, dystopian sci-fi, and post-apocalyptic sci-fi) in a way that the whole lot sticks together (actually, Cloud Atlas can’t be seen in any other way than as a whole), and where everything is clear and running smoothly, and on top of that, its three hour run feels like an action ride, instead of a confusing and dry arthouse flick. Its message may not be revolutionary or original, but who cares in this case? Or do we now expect every film to come out with its own ontological system? In any case, the ending is very effective, it brings together the climax of six stores – it’s about half an hour long (six times five minutes). Half an hour of goosebumps :) … In short, the Wachowskis and Tykwer met the expectations I had set for them (which this year Scott and Nolan couldn’t do), and at the same time they were able to surprise me with how quickly the film goes (some ninety minute films feel longer than this three hour monument), and mainly because it’s a lot more viewer-friendly than I expected. The attentive viewer won’t get lost and the receptive viewer will absorb, they only need to go a little against the flow. But more viewings will of course be necessary for even better details, and I’m already looking forward to them. 100 % (11/23/2012)

Though there is nothing revolutionary this time norupdating of filmic means of expression as in the case of The Matrix or Speed Racer, or an encounter with something infinitely fresh as in the case of Run Lola Run, that does not in any way diminish the credit due to the Wachowskis and Tykwer. Their first collaboration is one big “and yet it works” with respect to the evident belief of producers and studio representatives that the eponymous work on which it is based cannot be filmed and with respect to the wrongheaded assumption that the result would be some sort of intellectual dumka; and we can add the belief that a spectacular blockbuster cannot be shot in Europe. In the final result, the fact that, at its core, Cloud Atlas does nothing revolutionary, yet guides the viewer without difficulty through its seemingly complicated narrative, is a fascinating illustration of the narrative possibilities of the medium of film and its language. (12/16/2016)

Cloud Atlas completely bewitched me. I had to think about the film because that’s what I wanted from it, and that was exactly its goal. It was beautiful to look at, but it was even better that I wondered all the time if I could understand it or if I was just trying my best to follow those six stories. It’s hard when the creators tell you six stories, each different and each interesting and all the while certain characters incessantly keep talking so philosophically that the 172 minutes absolutely sucked me out at the end. I believe that the essence of the whole film lies somewhere in those thousand ideas, and it is clear to me that I should watch it at least twice more so that I can understand everything. However, it was not a problem for me to understand that the story is mainly about spirituality and the different views that Hindus have on the essence of life and death. Writing a review is very difficult for me, because there are a lot of things I could say about this movie but it’s hard to put them into a coherent sentence. But what I can say is mainly that I can’t give this film the full amount of stars, even though I wanted to. I really wanted to. For the unique originality and for the courage that the creators invested in this incredibly demanding story, when they decided to give up their royalties just to finish it. But it saddens me that I’ve been waiting for some brutal conclusion all this time, where the individual stories would merge beautifully into a single whole and it didn’t quite happen. (12/13/2012)

It’s remarkable that the seams that connect the different stories in different time and space are so imperceptible that the film flows smoothly and the three hours are not even noticeable. Unfortunately, it results in something that has neither sufficient emotional nor cathartic effect. In other words, there is no profound experience, and by the end I felt a bit....empty. Anyway, I appreciate the courage to come up with something so non-commercial and non-subversive in this day and age, when A-film production resembles a controlled process to make money. (11/25/2012)