'Cloud Atlas' Movie Review Round-Up: A 2012 Must See

"Cloud Atlas" opens today in theaters and early reviews are rating this epic movie directed by "The Matrix" siblings Andy and Lana Wachowski, and Tom Tykwer ("Run Lola Run"), a must see for the year.

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The movie is based on the book with the same title and follows six stories, each within a different genre, set in a different time and place, with a different group of characters. It's a bit of a time travelling flick that goest from 1849 (I), 1937 (I), 1973 (I), 2012 (I), 2144 (I), a post-apocalyptic adventure in its entirety, 2144 (II), 2012 (II), 1973 (II), 1937 (II), 1849 (II).

"Cloud Atlas" has a 59 percent rating on the film aggregator site, Rotten Tomatoes.

Here is a roundup of what some of the movie critics are saying about "Cloud Atlas":

The Chicago Sun-Times:

"Surely this is one of the most ambitious films ever made. The little world of film criticism has been alive with interpretations of it, which propose to explain something that lies outside explanation. Any explanation of a work of art must be found in it, not taken to it."

The San Francisco Chronicle:

"Enormous in length and scope, a film whose purpose doesn't even begin to come into focus until two hours in."

Fox News:

"Cloud Atlas" is a marvel of film making and storytelling that should deliver more upon each viewing. Rich in symbolism and metaphor, "Cloud Atlas" is not a movie to view just once. It's a film that is equally popcorn entertainment as it is an experience to dissect and discover again and again.

New York Times:

"Cloud Atlas" is a movie about migratory souls and wayward civilizations, loaded with soaring themes and flights of feeling, as vaporous and comprehensive as its title. Big ideas, or at least earnest intellectual conceits, crowd the screen along with suave digital effects and gaudy costumes. Free will battles determinism. Solidarity faces off against domination. Belief in a benevolent cosmic order contends with fidelity to the cruel Darwinian maxim that "the weak are meat the strong do eat."

 The Boston Globe:

"'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."

Watch the "Cloud Atlas" trailer below: