Review of Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away (2012) by Annie M — 09 Jan 2013

Cirque du Soleil - World's Away.

Cirque Du Soleil is one of the greatest dance based artsy entertainment in the whole world. Over the course of time, what started as an informal street based play has catapulted in to one of the biggest Canadian corporations luring and titillating audience across the globe. Primarily, the art form runs as a musical with specific themes (most famous ones being elements of nature like water, fire, ice, wind etc.) and band accompaniments. Artists involved in the troupe perform a variety of nerve jacking stunts with a tricky "gasping for breath" feel to the audience (but not to them).

Plot:

Mia, a young lady, goes to a local circus show and is lured by a clown to visit their pinnacle act - The Aerialist. As she settles down to watch the show, she is totally encapsulated by the performer's enigma. Suddenly the aerialist misses an "air catch" and tumbles down in to the sand below. Mia jumps along with him to find herself in the mystical new world of "Cirque Du Soleil". Rest of the story is about Mia going through the world of Cirque and it's different performances in her quest for the aerialist.

Analysis:

Obviously there is no plot line to the film and the basic idea of using an art form to frame a movie seems kinda botched up. The writer/director Andrew Adamson might have been so enamored by the world of Cirque that he went ahead and made a movie (not a true musical which would have been great) by combining all their shows in Las Vegas (or world over).

Leaving the plot and directorial vision aside (if any), the performer's act is truly world class. So a simple story of two love birds trying to find each other in the midst of world class entertainment takes a backseat and audience will not be worried about their existence anymore. All the acts along with their themes are truly breathtaking especially in 3D.

Notable Acts:

--> "O" by Cirque du Soleil - stands for water in French and the act includes a huge pool of water with synchronized swimming, ground and aerial stunts.

--> KÃ Cirque Du Soleil At MGM Grand - act includes a show of "conflict and love" accompanied by martial arts, Chinese opera, climb and fight over a ramp clamped with arrows with the illusion of mountain climb.

--> The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil - circus based artistic and athletic performance with pulsating Beatles music in the background.

As all the acts are real acts performed by Cirque team all around the world, trying to amalgamate everything in to one single frame and a 97 minute duration is a tough task. It is exactly the point, where one will definitely lose the steam of expecting something from a movie as it's merely a collection of various circus based entertainment shows. Only advantage is "cheaper" access to all these art forms on one single avenue and more importantly right at a theater near by your home ;).

One must definitely go watch it before they step in to the real world of Cirque anywhere in the world.