Review: Cloud Atlas

The movie is quite a lot to take in for me, but I noticed the word 'Truth' pops up multiple times, which I believe is the overarching theme. A theme that holds together the six stories that make up the movie and that, like the characters inhabiting them, are linked to one another by way of sub-themes.

Cloud Atlas is an adaptation from a namesake novel penned by David Mitchell, who had this to say about the novel, and I quote:

"Literally all of the main characters, except one, are reincarnations of the same soul in different bodies..."

All of the main characters in the movie are interesting if not moving and are of interest to the sub-themes, except for the ones played by Tom Hanks; I think his characters, his reincarnations, speak to the movie's overarching theme: Truth.

I think this movie is important.

SORQ score: 4

(Runtime: 172 minutes)

Review: Oz the Great and Powerful

So on account of copyright issues, Disney was prevented from using specific stuff portrayed in the 1939 Oz movie. So this probably explains the creative changes made in the 2013 version.

So instead of The Scarecrow, The Cowardly Lion, and The Tin Man we have Glinda (Michelle Williams), Finley (Zach Braff), and the China Girl (Joey King). Instead of Dorothy, Oz (James Franco) takes the lead role. And instead of a treatise on theosophy, we get... Disney stuff.

I'm not even sure what Disney has stood and continues to stand for, but I don't trust it anymore. So instead of trying to decipher symbols relating to theosophy, I started to look for MK-ULTRA symbols and spotted a couple of one-eye salutes and a bunch of (monarch?) butterflies presaging the Black Swan metamorphosis that is to befall Theodora (Mila Kunis).

Bummer.

SORQ score: 4 (What can I say, it's right up my street after all.)

(Runtime: 130 minutes)

Review: Prometheus

Had to see it on DVD because I missed it in theatres last year (something I regret). In a nutshell the movie has got great visuals and a good story.

The story could've been great too, though. Director Ridley Scott seemingly set out to expound, to some degree, the Book of Genesis in a literal fashion and, in the process, attempted to make sense of it by meshing it with the ancient astronauts theory. It gives the movie a religious overtone, a sentiment that's brought home even further by the feelings of crew members of the spaceship Prometheus toward the Christian faith of protagonist Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace).

Prometheus the movie could've been great if, like The Da Vinci Code the novel, it got people to think, if it rattled some cages if need be, but most importantly: if it got people to think – as opposed to leaving people with a frown on their faces.

It's still an interesting movie, though. Different crew members seem to represent different schools of thought, that is (based on my gut feeling): Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) represents atheism, Peter Weyland (Guy Pierce) mysticism, Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) scepticism, David (Michael Fassbender) intellectualism, and Elizabeth Shaw faith (i.e. religion).

Spiritualism is not represented here, however. Which is too bad because it could've made the movie great.

SORQ score: 4

(Runtime: 124 minutes)