Do you want to experience exciting time travel? Watch this.

Rating: 9/10 (29 October 2012)

Before I write this review, I want to apologize for being doubtful about this movie after watching the trailer thinking "Oh this is another one of those movies where well-known cast boast their presence with stunning visual effects and abysmal plot." when it is based on the novel that got numerous receptions and awards. The Cloud Atlas is about various people from different centuries experience incidents that simultaneously and magically get connected through a series of cut scenes.
The most amazing thing about this movie is the way they edited to help us catch up the multidimensional scenes. Chronologically, it contains 6 different stories that take us from the remote South Pacific in 19th century to a further post-apocalyptic future, the importance of editing and various roles from multicultural characters is blatantly crucial. This movie can be considered as gambling because of a giant blockbuster cast, the complicated theme that often perplexes audiences. Fortunately, the directors and crews manage to nail it.
The number of characters appear in the movie make me deeply think how challenging it must be for everyone to execute different roles to fit their assigned characters. The most memorable character for me is Sonmi-451 played by Doona Bae, the Korean actress whose native language is neither Spanish nor English which are used in this film. Sonmi-451 is basically a genetically engineered clone that is designed to forcefully serve at restaurant owned by the notorious organization called "Papa song"(Gotta love the name!)in 2144 Seoul, South Korea.
As much as I love imagining the future, being able to experience the futuristic environment that consists of majestic skyscrapers that are connected by the transparent bridges where spiffy hybrid cars zipping around is really impressive. One drawback is the lack of originality because it reminds me of "Tron legacy" and the street of Midgar in Final Fantasy 7 in terms of looks and the fact that there are destitute citizens that include drug addicts, prostitutes, and bohemians who are under control of an autocrat.
No movies motivate me to write this much. There are still many things I would like to add but I better end it here before this review puts you into sleep. And last but not least, please let me share a few tips to those who are planning to watch this.
1. Try to pay close attention to the very beginning of the movie. The more you concentrate in the beginning, the easier for you to understand the entire plot.
2. Since each actor/actress in this movie is in charge of various roles, it will be difficult to figure it out everyone's identity. If you want to feel how much efforts they put in makeup, I suggest you to know the roles for each character ahead before watching it. The funny thing is even if you do, it will still be extremely hard to tell who they are.
3. This method might not work on others as there are different stories that often propel each other from time to time, try to grasp the flow of the movie by feeling instead of trying to scrutinizing each story by connecting them piece by piece.
Enjoy the movie.