Cloud Atlas is a massive undertaking - three directors, six intertwined storylines, actors playing both different roles and races, and all to uncover the meaning behind humanity's existence. The Wachowski Siblings, the masterminds behind The Matrix (formerly the Wachowski Brothers, before Larry cut off his wiener and became Lana Wachowski), are back in the ring after the under-performing Speed Racer with an adaptation of a 2004 novel that I've never read so I'll shut up about it. Along with a third director, Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run), this ambitious epic stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, and asian actress Zhou Xun all playing multiple roles across multiple timelines, past and present. And as much as I appreciate the effort and work that went into this movie, it ultimately falls flat.
Much like The Tree of Life, this film is steeped in pretentiousness; it tries to uncover the meaning of life and explore not one or two or three themes like a normal film, it tries to tackle every theme imaginable. This movie is so tightly packed together you will not necessarily be bored during its ~3 hour run time, but the "heavy" feelings that were intended will be lost because it's hard to latch on to any of the characters when the film jumps from timeline to timeline in the same span of time it takes to heat up a Hot Pocket. At one second we're following a period piece, the next it jumps to a futuristic sci-fi film, the next it's some kind of farce involving the elderly, the next it's even farther into the future -- it just tries to do too much.
Also, good god some of the makeup in this is not only bad, but is slightly racist as well. I understand the filmmakers wanted continuity between which actors play which characters in the timeline, but trust me, Hugo Weaving with "Asian" makeup is one of the worst things in any movie ever. Also, the future-future I mentioned employs this evolved form of English that is extremely frustrating to follow; not only that but the movie starts off in that dialect. If you have the patience for this film and perhaps an interest in philosophy, there are some cool nuggets of thought in here (and I loved how the score was implemented into the movie), but ultimately I don't think the film works on an emotional level.
Rating: C-
Video game fans have had to wade through so much bullshit at the movies. We've been bombarded with half-hearted cash-ins like Doom and all the crap from Uwe Boll, that gamers just want a film that doesn't insult their demographic. I think Wreck-It Ralph may have crossed that threshold and there can finally be a motion picture to be held high by joystick-wielding mouth breathers everywhere. The film follows the personal lives of the characters in the games at an arcade, in the same fashion as Toy Story, but instead of Mr. Potato Head we actually get to see nostalgic game characters like Pacman, Qbert, and Sonic go about their day. They all congregate at game central station, which is basically the power strip all the machines are plugged into (that's so clever and inventive, Disney, how nice). Ralph happens to be the bad guy of his video game but wants the glory of being a hero - so he breaks the rules and leaves his game, starting a cause-and-effect shitstorm that leads to his possible "unplugging."
I thought the execution of this pretty straightforward Disney flick was amazing. Although we've seen this "hero's journey" an excruciating amount of times, we've never seen it in this particular untapped world before. Every scene in this film is bursting with visual jokes and little amazing details in the background. The animation alone is worth seeing this for, and it does have that Disney trademark sweet, sentimental story. I do wish there were more "worlds" in the film though. We really only get to see three different games, and it would've been nice to have Ralph traversing through many different genres; the majority of the film takes place in this Candyland-inspired kart racing game. It's really well realized, but I'm just saying, had they added more worlds it would have been even nicer than its current level of nice. Overall though, this is a must-see for old school gamers.
Rating: B+
PS. The animated short titled Paperman that plays before Wreck-It Ralph was really quite good and pulled my god damn heartstrings.
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