An unparalleled triumph

Rating: 9/10 (18 August 2013)

There are few films that leave me with a feeling that will remain with me for a long time, but this has done it.
It is rare to meet a story that speaks so well for the human condition... that asks who we are, what motivates us, and what links us together.
This film will speak to people who like me often sit there and think of different times, the Roman era to name just one example, and think what were the people like? What motivated them? How in all their fears and inadequacies was there someone just like me sat in this same region hundreds of years ago thinking the same thing.
Cloud Atlas takes that, wonderfully, with interleaved stories that stand on their own merits but have common threads.
There are connections between the stories - much like someone could write a book 2000 years ago and now people follow it as if it were unquestionably true - about how things can influence the future. But aside from these small connections they are separate stories. They are not meant to be A + B = C. They are meant to portray commonalities.
The actors being reused works but also fails a little too. It perhaps at times tries to draw the narrative together a little too much. And some of the makeup and character choices are questionable (men as women, women as men and Asians that look like Vulcans). And this is the only reason I drop it a point - because it's hard for any film to be 10/10. Occasionally it snaps you out of the movie, but thankfully rarely.
I see some people have rated this 1/10 which to me is offensive. I appreciate that it may not be to everyone's taste; but the effects. The acting. The scope. Something warrants it to be the worst possible rating. But perhaps I'm not surprised. Some people in this world will contribute nothing. This masterpiece of direction, music, acting, special effects and locations by wonderfully talented people is worth the bottom rating of 1/10, but their 5 minute review is their 'contribution' to us. But it's nothing. They will die, and their words will be forgotten.
But some people stand for something. Make a mark, either on some one, or some thing... through standing against inequality, or creating beauty. And they will echo on. This is a story for all those people that have made the life we live today, and all those that will make a mark for years to come. And that is Cloud Atlas.