Review: Cloud Atlas

The Wachowski siblings (since brothers is no longer applicable) gave us one of the most memorable sci-fis in the history of cinema ever and that is ‘The Matrix’, then the sequels happened and both of them was underwhelming compared to the original. Also, their recent efforts were also not as good as it was supposed to be. So is ‘Cloud Atlas’ the Wachowski’s redemption? Find out below.

Synopsis:
Cloud Atlas explores how the actions and consequences of individual lives impact one another throughout the past, the present and the future. Action, mystery and romance weave dramatically through the story as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero and a single act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution in the distant future. Each member of the ensemble appears in multiple roles as the stories move through time. -- (C) Warner Bros.


Story:
The movie was adapted from a novel written by David Mitchell but unfortunately I wasn’t able to read it and I can’t say if this is a faithful adaptation. Having said that, ‘Cloud Atlas’ cooked up one of the most ambitious stories ever and it succeeded. Telling several stories from different timelines and connecting them through different characters that are similar from their previous incarnations which existed in the different timelines (I know confusing, right?). Despite that somehow confusing line-up, it was able to tell the story of the characters perfectly.

Acting:
The actors gave probably gave their best here as they were portraying different characters. Each actor were playing at least three or four characters and they just played it beautifully (well except for one part where they played Koreans, not conniving except for the makeup). In spite of the good performance from all the cast, there were two actors who stood out for me. The first was Hugo Weaving, he was just plain scary in his every role especially the transvestite-looking nurse and the second is Tom Hanks he played different characters with different personalities and he played them perfectly.

VFX:
One word, WOW! It was very realistic and believable. The FX really stood out when the Neo-Seoul was shown, it was plain awesome, it didn’t felt like it was too heavy on CGI, everything just feels organic. The other thing that I liked here is the make-up, it was just amazing, you can barely recognize the actors from the make-up but what really stood out for me was the make-up on Hugo Weaving as the scary nurse.

Violence:
It didn’t show much action scene but it didn’t hold back on being violent. It showed lots of blood and the violence was authentic and it felt real and some of them were also shocking.

Music:
I simply loved the score in this movie, sometimes it felt relaxing, sometimes thrilling. It was a way to show the environment of the movie whether the scene will be suspenseful or not.

Direction:
The Wachowski’s and Tykwer made one of the most memorable films in recent times, the three of them made a smart movie that has a compelling story and very rich characters. I’m not really familiar of Tykwer’s works and I don’t really know who he is but all I can say is ‘Cloud Atlas’ is a game changer for the Wachowskis.

Overall:
‘Cloud Atlas’ is one of those movies that one has a necessity to watch, it is mind-boggling, it has an engaging story and the performance from the cast is top-notch. All I can say is The Wachowskis are back and better than ever. I give this a 4.5/5.