An Epic Masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (29 October 2012)

It seems normal nowadays to watch a sensational movie trailer and assume the movie will be great, based on what you had seen -- until you go see it in theatres and suddenly the trailer contained 85% of what little goodness such a movie managed to muster up. This is becoming all too common.
But this is not the case with Cloud Atlas.
The trailer alone screamed 'Perpetual, epic, and sensational'... and the film absolutely blew the preview away.
The movie takes us on a journey between six story lines from mid 1800s to our post apocalyptic earth, jumping in an intuitive flow-of-consciousness manner from story to story in a completely unlinear way. It takes about 40 minutes of this nearly 3 hour movie for the entire stage to be firmly set in the viewer's mind -- but once it is, you fall in love with each character and embark with them on their journeys through space and time. The story lines, the screenplay, the ensemble cast, the visuals, and the heart of the story that seems so intuitively inspired work together so flawlessly that you may forget you've been shifting nervously in a butt-numbing theatre chair for three hours. Prepare to laugh, cry, twist your face in ways you never expected to (the movie has a very... visual nature to it), and to fidget dramatically with your thumbs.
Though there are a few minor gripes.
Watching the cast jump gender gaps, races etc can be hilarious... simply because the makeup doesn't always work out. The makeup use is very extreme, and it is usually implemented well, but sometimes shouts through the story "Hey, I'm definitely Hugo Weaving, though I clearly shouldn't be."
But the movie is guaranteed to polarize audiences into groups of 'that was awesome!' And 'that was a waste of time'. Simply put: if the extended trailer speaks to you in some profound way, or elicits a desire to watch it, this movie is for you. Some people just don't appreciate the way the story is told... its a right brained thing. And right brained people will get the most out of this movie because of our ability to transcend sequential narratives. Left brained people will be left trying to deeply analyze a single, monural instrument and instead miss the intricate orchestral work in the stereo field.
In short: if you like the preview, this movie will deliver way beyond expectations. For what it's worth, I guarantee it will leave you knowing you've witnessed the cinematic experience of the century.