Cloud Atlas
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: October 26, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 45 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
20
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Total FilmJames MottramFeb 9, 2013
A grand folly that makes the Wachowskis’ "The Matrix" trilogy look prosaic, Cloud Atlas is a fascinating if flawed work that will leave you gasping one minute and gagging the next. Read full review
60
The New YorkerAnthony LaneOct 27, 2012
One has to ask: does it allow for immersion? Even as we applaud the dramatic machinery, are we being kept emotionally at bay? [29 Oct. & 5 Nov. 2012, p.128]
60
SlateDana StevensOct 26, 2012
Where the book is sinuous and oblique, their film is galumphing and heavy-handed, its rare flights of lyricism stranded between long stretches of outright risibility. And yet there's something commendable about the directors' commitment to their grandiose act of folly. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottOct 25, 2012
This is by no means the best movie of the year, but it may be the most movie you can get for the price of a single ticket. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineMark KeizerOct 16, 2012
The movie version has the exciting and challenging parts down but the moral awakening it so strenuously wants us to experience remains beyond its reach. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerOct 26, 2012
The result is maddening, exasperating, occasionally exhilarating – and mostly boring. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternOct 25, 2012
This would-be epic is beautifully photographed, elegantly crafted and adventurously cast. Unfortunately, though, it plays like a gargantuan trailer for a movie still to be made. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaOct 25, 2012
Cloud Atlas is pop spiritualism, comic-book grandiosity, Zen for dummies. I can't say I didn't enjoy it on some level, but it's not the level of universal wisdom the Wachowskis and Tykwer would have us be on. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanOct 25, 2012
A tale that ought to dispel the clouds of mystery surrounding life gathers them into impenetrable fog. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 24, 2012
Cloud Atlas is ambitious in nature, epic in scope and, ultimately, a big, overstuffed mess. [24 Oct 2012]
50
TimeRichard CorlissSep 10, 2012
Most viewers are likely to be impressed more by the magnitude of the effort than the magnificence of the effect. Cloud Atlas is a Terry Gilliam movie without the kinks, a Wong Kar-wai film without the smoky dreamscape, a time-and-Space Oddity that remains frustratingly earthbound. Put it another way: this is no "Speed Racer." Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerSep 9, 2012
Not quite soaring into the heavens, but not exactly crash-landing either, Cloud Atlas is an impressively mounted, emotionally stilted adaptation of British author David Mitchell's bestselling novel. Read full review
45
NPRBob MondelloOct 25, 2012
The directors can make it fluid, comprehensible and gorgeous to look at, but they can't keep what struck many readers as profound on the page, from seeming profoundly obvious on screen, especially when every point gets reiterated six times. Read full review
42
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthSep 10, 2012
Too long by at least a half hour, and both dull and repetitive as it goes on, Cloud Atlas reaches for envelope-pushing storytelling but never delivers on its promise. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranOct 25, 2012
Unfortunately, attempts to be original are not enough, they have to succeed, and this film's solutions tend to present themselves as alternately gimmicky and banal. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierOct 25, 2012
For all its strengths, the film is cursed by an ADD-style structure and a flashy but inevitably ineffective casting stunt. Read full review
40
Village VoiceNick PinkertonOct 23, 2012
Each segment feels more like an extended trailer for itself than a sound narrative unit. Maybe this incompletion is purposeful, but it's a problem when what's invariably elided or taken for granted is the very human connection and commiseration that is supposedly the most vital force in the universe. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichOct 23, 2012
For all of Cloud Atlas's pseudorevolutionary blather about upending the "natural order," the execution couldn't be squarer. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinOct 22, 2012
The cast comes off like a third-rate stock company on the matinee after the night on which everyone got bombed on mescal (and possibly mescaline). Read full review
40
The GuardianHenry BarnesSep 9, 2012
Tykwer and the Wachowskis' other twist on this karmic hokum - to cast each of their actors in multiple roles across the stories, regardless of age or race - is less successful. Read full review
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