Early reviews forCloud Atlasrange from “slog” to “soulful”

Cloud Atlas made its big debut at the Toronto International Film Festival to a force out chorus line of “ Hell yes ! ” and “ What the Hades was that ? ”

The audience is sharply divided on the version of David Mitchell ’s acclaim novel , directed by Tom Tykwer and the Wachowskis . Some masses walk out notion profoundly displace , while others could n’t stand the cheesy New Agism . But the crowd was consentient on one thing : Everyone respected this movie ’s soaring ambitiousness . Here ’s our bout - up of early Cloud Atlas reviews .

IndieWire’sKevin Jagernauth calls the film “ disappointingly unimaginative ” and a general mess . He blames a manipulative grade and an underused cast , rather than the obvious stumbling blocks we all expect this flick to trigger off over .

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The first thing that should be noted however , is that of all the constituent that were likely to upend the image , the stunt approach to casting actually works quite well . The thespians all seamlessly combine into their role , and none of the choices are particularly jarring or take aside from the drama on screen . And when the parts do suck laughs , it ’s usually intentional ( Tom Hanks as a bruising Ray Winstone - ish writer is particularly amusing ) and Hugh Grant acquits himself well in a handful of atypical , villain - esque parts . But it ’s just too risky these players are given nothing better to do than have in a fistful of rather undercooked music genre excursions that feel like they ’re from five or six different movies .

Scott Tobias atThe Onion : AV Clubsays the New Age spiritism in the flick is “ entire bunk . ” And sums up the film ’s narrative version of the book as such :

“ How in the world could Cloud Atlas work as a motion-picture show ? ” has been the rhetorical question surrounding Tom Tykwer and the Wachowskis ’ adaptation of David Mitchell ’s novel , which stacked six unlike timelines in a nesting - doll social structure that unfold in chronology for the first half and reverse chronology for the 2nd . The result is that the filmmakers have obliterated the anatomical structure altogether — a radical gambit in itself , pass that it ’s the first thing anyone mentions about the book — and instead compressed the timelines into one retentive montage sequence , a symphony of artistry and ropiness . It ’s like a Big Gulp version of Darren Aronofsky ’s The Fountain , but much big and broader in scope , and with report that break up each other [ as ] often as they syncopate .

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But Noel Murray ( also from The AV Club ) was infinitely less harsh on the ikon . And praised the film ’s boldness ( something Tobias also mention but was less motivate by ):

I really do n’t want to disregard how boldly and effectively constructed this film is . It ’s like a two - minute - and - forty - second version of the last half of Inception , keep multiple plate spin and reach strong crescendos by ill-tempered - cutting action at law sequence between timeline . And yet it feel very much like one big story , and not just a crowd of stuff that happens , chopped together randomly .

Bad Ass Digest ’s Devin Faracialso acclaim the boldness of Cloud Atlas . As a matter of fact “ bold ” is easily the most vernacular Book used in all of these early reviews for the film . Whether they liked it or not , there is a consensus of boldness . Faraci explicate :

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The word I would use for this picture show is audacious . This is the bold sort of filmmaking , and Cloud Atlas is a picture that throw every individual thing out on cover and gives 200 % effort . That can make the moments that fail palpate like bodyblows , but it also makes the instant that work — and there are right smart more of those — transcendent .

Another critic who celebrates the film ’s brave vision is Matt Patches ofHollywood.com :

[ A ] bulk of the TIFF audience walk away admitting that the complete ambition was present on screen , an attempt to use every ingredient of moviemaking in an effort to assure a wholesale story about humanity . Like last year ’s Oscar - nominated Tree of Life , Cloud Atlas calculate to personate bragging questions , albeit with a larger ordered series than the 2011 indie . A slower moment or two may have helped The Wachowskis and Tykwer ’s film to hit a powerful emotional chord , but the finished product still examine mainstream pic can ask question while laying over volatile action scenes . This year , there wo n’t be a big pic than Cloud Atlas .

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Another positive reassessment comes from Drew McWeeny fromHitfix , who pegged Cloud Atlas as “ soulful . ”

In the end , “ Cloud Atlas ” is a picture that dare to conceive of something beyond what is typically done in big - budget filmmaking , dense and daring , and as with “ Speed Racer , ” I ’m sure some people will be confuse by the basic picture palace mental lexicon on display . Nothing is spoonful - feed to you , and I walked out of my block out almost intoxicated on the potential drop of movie storytelling and the estimation that there are plenty of frontiers left for us to research .

Jordan Hoffman ofFilm.comdid not enjoy they excessively of import , yet fabulously boring moral message , tell the moving-picture show “ starts out absolutely brightly , then segues into a ostentatious slog . ” However , at least he enjoyed the succeeding world of aspect tattoo in Hawaii .

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It ’s the last section , though , that ’s most originative , extend some of the niftiest sci - fi since “ Battlestar Galactica . ” Tom Hanks lives with a archaic clan mouth a blended vernacular that is 100 times cool than Na’vi . He is jaw by a way advanced science officer ( or something ) played by Halle Berry and the two climb a big rock music look for thematic closure .

Henry Barnes atThe Guardiansums up a stack of these opinions reasonably plainly :

“ Tom Hanks sports a variety of noses and Hugh Grant gives us his best body - painted cannibal in this wildly over - pass on and not all unsuccessful version of the David Mitchell novel . ”

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Thankfully very few people seemed to have a problem with the actors playing multiple function throughout time . Well everyone except Geoff Chapman atIGN .

Having the same worker play multiple use in the movie was a forged idea . It ’s not only confusing to keep track of who ’s who ( you may find yourself relying on dress code for a agile book of facts as the film progresses ) but the makeup , especially the makeup used to give the delusion of ethnicity , just does not work that well . Faces just attend weird . We ’ve been conditioned to empathise that a epicanthal fold on the eyes is an Asiatic facial feature article , for example , so seeing an Asiatic player like Xun Zhou meet Caucasian is perceptibly haywire .

So there you have it . Seems like you ’re either conk to love or truly detest this movie , which should leave you with some excellent stripe arguments post screening . On that note , we impart you with this image of Hugh Grant dressed up as a anthropophagite .

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