Cloud Atlas is not a normal movie.

Rating: 9/10 (4 November 2012)

Cloud Atlas is by no means a normal movie. IMDb has this blurb: "An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution." (Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1371111/) which is vaguely accurate. The story itself is more both complex and less deep at first glance than this.
It's more like a collection of stories across history that feature strange interactions between them. Each story and time period has the same actors / actresses playing either complete different or characters that are somehow related to their other time period characters in some way. The decision as to which is which appears random, sometimes feeling unnecessary and not all appear in all eras / stories. The drastic changes of say, Hugo Weaving's appearance between two periods is amazing and nearly a reason to watch the movie on it's own.
So, having read this so far, you might be thinking, "But I've already seen The Fountain, why do I need to watch this?" Well, The Fountain is an amazing movie, but it's different than this. The themes explored in this movie are nowhere near present in The Fountain, because despite the "intertwined characters across time" aspect, it takes a different approach. The Fountain is much more evident in it's time-spanning interactions, but perhaps Cloud Atlas takes multiple viewings to achieve this?
But that doesn't mean that this isn't a great story. It very much is. There's adventure, love, humor, passion and some amazing writing, all set to spectacular scenery and a probable Academy Award for costume design. It explores multiple themes, has you caring on multiple levels, and encourages multiple viewings.
The Good This movie is: 4/10 The Fountain 2/10 The Hyperion Cantos (seriously!) 1/10 Blade Runner 1/10 Mad Max 1/10 British Comedy 1/10 A bunch of other things If this doesn't sound good, I have some Jason Statham movies to recommend to you.
The Bad It takes a long time to get going, you're very confused at the start. I mean a long time, more than half an hour. Some of the dialects used are difficult to understand.
Overall It's rare that someone can call a movie "beautiful", but this is indeed just that. I will watch this movie several times throughout my life, and I suspect that over time, it will gather appreciation it deserves. 9/10 stars here.