Riveting for nearly three hours

Rating: 7/10 (7 August 2016)

In an era where most films released in the theaters are sequels, remakes, or involve superheros and teenagers, a cosmic epic like "Cloud Atlas" is a massive undertaking and a wonderful folly. It's an uneven journey, but also a fascinating, challenging, intelligent, imaginative one. The filmmakers incorporate many different genres (nautical adventure, period drama, spy thriller, comedy, futuristic sci-fi, etc.) and the film is alternately funny, sad, heartwarming, violent and exciting. It's also a triumph of production design and makeup (only a few of the digital special effects look fake), and a great showcase for the versatility of several actors who play multiple characters. *** out of 4.