Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away (2012)

It is a performances centric movie

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

A lonely girl goes to see a local circus where she receives a poster with "The Aerialist" whom she seeks the entire movie. She only appears for a couple of minutes, the rest being filled with spectacular circus moments.Unfortunately, that is about it in terms of story, which, from my point of view is a big disappointment. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy circus, especially high quality one depicted in this film but that is not enough to create a movie. If you simply want to see circus with apparently no connection between moments (indeed, flawlessly executed and shot), then this one is a must see. If you are looking for an actual movie which has a plot, an intrigue, a finale and so on, just like I did, then you'll have to search elsewhere. I really was expecting something more than a circus documentary...

I haven't seen Cirque du Soleil live in performance although I've read a lot about Guy Laliberté, the billionaire founder of Cirque du Soleil, and stories about very wild parties he holds at his mansion.Anyway, I caught this movie on a flight and I was very impressed. Whilst some parts are disjointed as acts move from one to the next, the performances were breathtaking, scary and humorous in parts. I wonder how they managed to do it!The final act was very uplifting, and I must admit, it was inspiring seeing the curtain call at the end, where we see clips from the live performances taking us through to the credits with the Beatles' All you need is love.

Confession: I have never seen a single real Cirque du Soleil show live. I have seen approximations of what it must be though, like the "Kaos" show at the Resorts World in Manila. While some stunts can be really breathtaking, I feel I cannot sit through an entire performance awake with its hypnotic instrumental soundtracks. I do not really like mimes and clowns as well because I find them and their facial make-up creepy.Anyway, I was curious to see what this movie was all about. Maybe because it carries the CdS name, yet it was a feature film. I thought there would be a real fleshed-out story interspersed with CdS numbers. Well, now that I have seen it, there was actually a skeleton of a love story between a girl and an Aerialist, with a collection of various best numbers from several CdS shows that the two encounter in the fantasy world under the circus ring, serving to move the movie along. This is basically a silent film, no dialogues nor narrations, just a rich musical soundtrack.Frankly I only liked the main protagonists and their story, the girl and the Aerialist she is fascinated with. So when they were not on screen, I felt bored. Lucky there were several numbers from the Beatles "Love" show to keep me awake -- because of the Beatles songs though, mind you, not really the performances. The best number for me was the one at the end when the girl and her Aerialist reunite and perform their daring and graceful pas de deux in the air. That special moment alone was already worth the price of admission.However, you can really see and appreciate the amount of acrobatic talent, bravery and production expense in each CdS show. This film is really for fans of CdS who want to watch all the currently running CdS shows but cannot. Aside from "Love", this film incorporates numbers from "O", "Ka", "Mysterie", "Zumanity" and others. For people who are curious about CdS but could not afford their expensive tickets, then this would be a good introduction.

First of all, try not to analyze too much why this or that is there - remember it's a circus. *Also, **small spoilers ahead**But yes, this was a beautiful, awe inspiring experience. The basic story is a young woman meeting the Aerialist and when he falls into the sand pit below him, he and she sink into this other world, and then they're separated and have to go through all these different worlds to find each other again. By "worlds" I mean a bunch of other Cirque du Soleil performances put together with rather great transitions. Even the Beatles LOVE performance is in it!Speaking of the Beatles, the music a lot of times is wonderful and very pleasing, especially the Beatles part (which I tried to sing along to) and the part with the Asian looking people with the red tights :) The 3D, courtesy of the legendary James Cameron, is stunning and reminded me a lot of Avatar. Same thing for the acrobatics, the performers did a great job!!Very recommended, 9/10