Pretentious...

Rating: 3/10 (13 May 2016)

I watched CLOUD ATLAS more out of mild interest than anything else. I'm aware that it's based on a lengthy novel by the British author David Mitchell, but I tend to avoid most modern 'literary' stuff because I find it dry, self-indulgent, and pretentious claptrap...
So along comes CLOUD ATLAS, and pretty much ticks all of those boxes. This is a film made by the Wachowskis, a pair of sibling directors who peaked early on in their careers with THE MATRIX and have gone downhill ever since. I'm not sure whether CLOUD ATLAS is as bad as SPEED RACER - on the face of it, probably not - but it smacks of desperation and 'look at me' attention seeking.
This is a long-running, slow moving storyline which tells various mini-narratives over the course of its running time. One is set in a futuristic Korean society, one is about life in a nursing home in contemporary times, one is a historical account from the 19th century. None of these stories adds up to much on its own, but the idea is that each of the characters in the stories are connected, sharing souls with characters in otherwise unconnected tales. A look at reincarnation, if you like.
What this amounts to is having the core cast taking on wildly diverse roles. Western actors will play characters who look like themselves in one story and then don 'yellow face' for the Korean tale. Koren actress Doona Bae is turned into a westerner for one of her roles. The problem is that this make-up looks RIDICULOUS with plasticine foreheads that made me think I was watching Klingons on STAR TREK. In addition, the acting stinks, particularly from the trying-too-hard likes of Jim Broadbent and Hugh Grant. I was embarrassed, and cringing through most of this. It really is drivel, and for the life of me I can't see why some reviewers are praising it as some kind of masterpiece...