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)

So I saw 'Angels & Demons'

As a kid I was invited to a classmate's birthday bash that turned out to be quite memorable as the main event involved a treasure hunt in the local park organized by his older brother and sister. So off we went scooting here and there based on clues nailed on trees or hidden under and behind other park objects. I don't recall what the treasure was only that the hunt was positively exciting.

In Angels & Demons, symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) does more or less the same in Rome as he races against time to locate a canister with antimatter, which is apparently highly dangerous stuff, hidden somewhere in the Vatican while trying to stay one step ahead of the sinister Illuminati.

Now, a treasure hunt is all about the hunt, and the movie's thrills and frills should've come from the hunt. Everything else is a moot point. The hunt here, however, feels rushed and therefore unsatisfying.

(Running time: 138 minutes)