Review of Cloud Atlas (2012) by Saucyninja007 — 14 Nov 2012

As polarizing as The Tree of Life, Cloud Atlas is an original and ambitious film, blending too many genres to count and making bold risks that should only be admired. Taking place in the distant past, the far future, and everything in between, the movie tells six stories that are all interesting in their own right, slipping between the separate threads with surprising ease.

Objectively, Cloud Atlas is superb on a technical level, a fact that should not go ignored. Another fact: the visuals are stunning, benefiting from the wonderful cinematography. What is more, the acting is terrific, with Tom Hanks and Halle Berry really giving their best performances in recent memory.

As I hope the academy recognizes, the makeup in Cloud Atlas is masterfully done, rendering even the most recognizable actors unrecognizable. On one hand, Cloud Atlas is not, as some critics have tried to label it, pseudo-intellectual garbage .

On the other hand, Cloud Atlas is not a pretentious film that prides itself in being too "smart" for the majority of its viewers to grasp, hiding behind the guise of "art". Fortunately, the plot of the film is easy to grasp if you are paying attention, and there is far less ambiguity than you might expect.

Most importantly, paying nearly three hours of close attention is worth it; Cloud Atlas builds to a sensational, emotional climax that is impossible to forget.