Finally, after many years, the Wachowski's and Tyker have done something else worth mentioning.

Rating: 9/10 (16 February 2013)

How do you approach a movie like Cloud Atlas? It's big, it's got a big concept, a big cast, big thoughts. It's slightly overwhelming, and wildly ambitious I might add. Well, some reacted the way I did. Some said, "Yes, it's pretty awesome, but what exactly just happened?" But most just said,"What the hell just happened?"
Cloud Atlas has big name stars like Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, and Susan Surandon playing a three-hour game of dress up. When I put it that way it undermine's the movie's qualities, but I really don't mean to.
I say that because part of the enjoyment I got from this movie was trying to figure out who was who. In one story, Halle Berry plays an Asian man. In another, Hugo Weaving plays a mean nurse. Some are completely unrecognizable, and for that it is a bit of a crime that cloud Atlas received no technical nominations at the Oscars this year.
I honestly don't really know how to explain this thing. It's basically about souls and reincarnation told through six different stories all in different periods of time. The souls, as I gave an example of earlier, appear in different forms. The movie doesn't exactly say this, but it brushes on the concept a few times. One story is in a futuristic Japan, one is in 2012 England, one is in a post-apocalyptic world, one is in the 70's, one during WWII, and one during the 1800's.
The film has three directors, Andy and Lana(formerly Larry) Wachowski, who helmed The Matrix trilogy and the God awful Speed Racer, and the other is Tom Tyker, whose only other memorable movie is Run Lola Run. All three of them direct different segments, and damn it they do a fantastic job. The cinematography is dazzling, as are the visual effects. The story is unique and complicated and at times maddening, but fascinating.
Sure occasionally you might laugh because, well, Hugo Weaving is playing a woman. Come on, it's funny. The story did lose me from time to time and you really don't know where it's going until about two hours in. But you can't help but admire the effort and ambition put forth. Yes it's way too long but how to you trim it? I can honestly say that I have never seen anything like it, and I may never ever again.
Of the best movies of the year, this one is by far the most flawed. I'd rank it up there with Inception as one of the biggest, boldest movies of the upcoming decade. It is one of the best movies of the year. Screw the critics, they're idiots. Maybe, in another life, the world can learn to admire this movie. But that shouldn't be a problem for me.
A-