Film Review - Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away 3D

This is not a movie at all. It is literally a live circus on camera, filmed over different locations and edited together for the big screen with some cool 3D aspects.

For decades, Cirque du Soleil have been wowing audiences with their fantastic compilation of aerialists, contortionists, trampolines, synchronised swimming, high wire acrobats, and gymnasts doing amazing things—backed by a huge variety of music in the most beautifully artistic costumes and sets.

This specific show, now brought to the big screen, loosely interweaves a love story throughout its acrobatic displays, as a circus attendee and aerialist search through different worlds after their eyes met across the crowded room. They are pulled into a fantasy circus world and have to fight and search for their love, uniting in a beautiful finale dance set 30 feet in the air. The whole thing would be breath taking live, but loses a little of the magic on a big screen.

We have perhaps been a little bit too spoiled by special effects and slick editing in movies, so that many of us have lost that childlike awe when we first see acrobats flying through the air or contortionists scratching their noses with their toes while bending over backwards. Pay close attention, though, and you’ll soon realise that what these performers are doing is very real and dangerous, incredibly skilful, and that they’re pushing the human body to its limits. We are fantastically-designed creatures that can do amazing things.

Let yourself be amazed and enjoy the colour, the music, and the wonder that is circus at its best. Just don't expect a storyline. 

Review by Sarah Healey

Genre: Fantasy 3D
Director: Andrew Adamson
Rating: PG (scary scenes)
Run time: 1 hour 37 mins