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
100
SalonAndrew O'HehirOct 26, 2012
Its too-muchness is also the source of its power; I was absolutely never bored, and felt surprised when the movie ended. It's an amazing, baffling, thrilling and (for many, it would appear) irritating experience, and for my money the most beautiful and distinctive big-screen vision of the year. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertOct 24, 2012
It fascinates in the moment. It's getting from one moment to the next that is tricky. Surely this is one of the most ambitious films ever made. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianMarc MohanOct 25, 2012
It has laser gun fights, forbidden love, and a rollicking group breakout from a fascistic old folks' home. What more could anyone want? Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovOct 24, 2012
This remarkable adaptation of the supposedly "unfilmable" novel by David Mitchell achieves near-perfection on virtually all levels. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonOct 25, 2012
Superior filmmaking. Yes, it runs almost three hours - but you've probably seen 90-minute films that felt a lot longer. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanOct 24, 2012
Cloud Atlas is certainly out to be a ''visionary'' mindbender, but the film's secret is that it's a nimbly entertaining and light-on-its-feet Hollywood contraption, with the actors cast in multiple roles as if playing a game of dress-up. Read full review
80
EmpireIan NathanFeb 18, 2013
Don’t let its commercial nosedive in the US tell the whole story. Cloud Atlas is a tough sell, but a rewarding journey all the same. It’s an adventure into the very concept of storytelling: magical, enthralling and thrilling as much as bewildering, pompous and potty. In other words, up in the clouds. Read full review
80
MovielineAlison WillmoreOct 26, 2012
As is often the peril with movies of giant ambition, Cloud Atlas walks a crooked line between the glorious and the ridiculous. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 9, 2012
As inventive narratives go, there's outside the box, and then there's pioneering another dimension entirely, and this massive, independently financed collaboration among Tom Tykwer and Wachowski siblings Lana and Andy courageously attempts the latter. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 27, 2012
Taken as little more than six disconnected shorts featuring the same group of players in different roles, Cloud Atlas works. It's entertaining and the manner in which it has been edited reduces one's tendency to lose patience with the less engaging stories. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 25, 2012
Despite some weaknesses, a sense gradually emerges in this film- not just an idea, but a strong feeling mixed with an idea - about the dance of good and evil over time. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsOct 24, 2012
Measured scene by scene, the film isn't always successful, and its transcendent moments make it easy to wish it could reach that elevated pitch more often. But Cloud Atlas is the sort of work where the big picture matters more than the details. It's an imperfect film of great daring and tremendous humanity, a work of many stories, but a singular achievement. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnSep 10, 2012
Tom Hanks' appearances come across like scene changes between unfunny sketches on 'Saturday Night Live.' Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyOct 25, 2012
Even at three hours, the film feels truncated, which raises the question of whether the entire adaptation exercise might have chosen the wrong form. Stretched out to 10 or 12 hours on cable television, Cloud Atlas, the series, would be the talk of the fall television season, and the stories, rather than the thematic scaffolding, would be the right focus of attention. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigOct 25, 2012
The cinematography is gorgeous and the makeup amazing, but the story lines are too disconnected. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayOct 25, 2012
While Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski haven't necessarily expanded on Mitchell's book, they've done a superlative job making it legible onscreen. Cloud Atlas deserves praise if only for not being the baggy, pretentious disaster it could have been in other hands. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezOct 25, 2012
If you're interested in the sheer craft of filmmaking, Cloud Atlas is required viewing - a rare example of a movie getting by entirely on technique and creative bravado. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 25, 2012
Unlike "Tree" or "2001," Cloud Atlas offers more answers than it does questions, and by the end of its nearly three-hour running time - which flies by surprisingly fast, all things considered - it feels like the most feverishly expensive late-night college bull session ever. There are glories here, but they fade in the light of day. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 25, 2012
For all the spectacular settings and visionary designs, Cloud Atlas left me feeling disconnected. Sad. But that's the true true. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 25, 2012
The movie doesn't really work, but it's fascinating in the ways it doesn't. Then again, I enjoyed the spacey insanity of the Wachowskis' "Speed Racer," which they didn't even like in Asia. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezOct 17, 2012
Its ideas are paralleled, its themes twinned, sometimes breathlessly, sometimes fatuously, into what may be described as a 164-minute pop song of seemingly infinite verses, choruses, and bridges. Perhaps expectedly, it soars as often as it thuds. Read full review
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