Probably no spoiler unless "connect the dots" spells it out to you.

Rating: 5/10 (17 December 2013)

Cloud Atlas
I don't really think there's a spoiler but I didn't want to get busted if I accidentally understood any part of this movie and there-by said something "spoiling" about it.
If you were looking at reviews of this movie and you set the 'search' to "hated it" on IMDb you'd get a good dose of what I felt like most the time with the movie. I am, however, giving it 5 stars assuming that rating is on the low end of "it's OK" vs. 4, the high end of "I didn't like it". Because despite my complaints, which are multitude, I didn't feel like it was a total waste of my time.
I obtained this movie to watch based on "Tom Hanks" and nothing else. That won't be happening again. I didn't watch it for ages though. Seeing it sitting around yesterday (12-16-13) I looked at the IMDb blurb and thought, "This might be interesting." I didn't read any reviews.
I had the idea this was a time travel movie. See Tom Hanks old, see Tom Hanks much younger in scenes close together... I don't think that assumption was a leap. But that really isn't what's going on in this movie. While trying to think what it is like, I remember that as a child my mother would buy me connect the dot books. Connect the dots correctly.... Elephant! Hooray! This movie has dots galore. I wasn't connecting the dots, or if I was connecting the dots it was turning out to be a dream-catcher, not a movie. I did get that it was a series or parallel of stories and I was able to "care" about several of the stories as they hopped and skipped about, but it wasn't going to mold itself into the science fiction time travel movie I had suspected in the beginning.
Maybe if I watched it a few times or if it had closed captions I would have liked it more. I'm still pretty sure it was like movies that start in the middle, go to the end, and end with the beginning. But this movie was juggling several stories at once while doing that jumble the plot thing. I think. Probably why some people raved about the movie as genius. I'll be calling BS on that one.
There was one part where I had a "moment" that I really enjoyed. Others probably not. It was where one of Hank's "native" characters was talking gibberish to an anthropologist (I think). I think that because the "advanced" person slipped in and out of talking "normal" and talking gibberish when addressing Hank's character. What sort of surprised me is I cogged the gibberish. True, true.
I won't go so far as to say, "Don't waste your time." I've read some reviews now and some folks really like it. I'm guessing if you like to put jigsaw puzzles together while knitting, this movie would add pleasantly to your entertainment time. Or not. Your mileage may vary.