CLOUD ATLAS Movie Review

                                  

I wish I could recommend CLOUD ATLAS because it had SO much potential but I really can't support it because it was so violent and convoluted.

 

Despite having excellent visual effects, some of the best actors in Hollywood like Tom Hanks, and a theme of "everything is connected", this film is not what it was marketed to be: an inspirational/spiritual epic.

 

I felt cheated when I saw the movie because I was expecting a deep, riveting story with profound spiritual messages like AVATAR, INCEPTION and LIFE OF PI and instead I got a violent, action film that was very hard to follow.

For the first hour my head hurt just watching the various story-lines from different time periods. It was not easy to connect the actors and roles throughout their past lives. However, the make-up was fantastic as you can barely recognize Tom Hanks and Halle Berry throughout some of their scenes

 

The last fifteen minutes of the film are definitely the best and showcase a bit of a message about the inter-connectedness of humanity, the potential to stand-up for the truth, and the fight for love.

 

I am just disappointed that this movie missed out on its potential to be a mindful movie full of wisdom and Spirit. I felt like the Wachowski brothers sold-out to the lowest common denominator that wants violence in our media. Some of the kill scenes in the film were very disturbing because they were so realistic and gruesome. And while we have often died in cruel and unusual ways in past lives, I felt like the deaths portrayed were gratuitous.

 

I kept hoping the law or karma would prevail and teach everyone a lesson but a lot of the stories were so bleak. This is definitely not THE MATRIX and I guess I had too high expectations for the next spiritual blockbuster.

 

The group I screened it with all had differing opinions of the film and one person compared it to the book which seems to be a bit more introspective. I guess the good news is that there is still a lot of room for powerful, meaningful, profound blockbusters to be created about concepts like karma, inter-connectedness, and love. Who is going to make the next one?  What did you think of the film?

 

Entertain - Enlighten - Inspire,

Kate Neligan - Founder & CEO of Synergy TV