Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away

One of the most famous live shows ever, Cirque Du Soleil has been enjoyed by millions of people all over the world. Now it is being brought to the big screen, with the 3D being supplied by producer James Cameron, and the story and direction provided by Andrew Adamson (The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe).

The plot - if you can even call it that - kicks off when Mia (Erica Linz) visits a local circus and instantly falls in love with trapeze artist The Aerialist (Igor Zaripov). In the middle of his act, The Aerialist catches her eye, misses the rope in front of him and falls from a height... into an alternative dimension, and Mia follows him in. From this point on, the plot becomes quite Narnia-esque, as our female lead heads into this strange land filled with weird creatures that are at war with their evil ruler.

Visually, Worlds Away is hugely impressive; Mia and her love interest travel from one "tent world" to the next, each representing one of the seven interpretations of Cirque Du Soleil that are shown in Las Vegas – the Beatles one, the Elvis one, the "sexy" one, etc. The aesthetics and set-pieces are reminiscent of the J-Lo sci-fi horror movie The Cell, as well as some of Tim Burton's movies and in one stand-out battle sequence involving the sudden shifting of gravity, Inception. The camera gets into every nook and cranny of each set-up, allowing the audience to view the acrobatics from more than just the usual head-on position.

Unfortunately, as a movie, Worlds Away doesn't really work. The story is threadbare and not really concerned with making sense or maintaining any kind of coherence. But aside from that, one of the big reasons to watch Cirque Du Soleil live is because of the how visceral it is, because these feats of amazing acrobatics have a proper sense of danger to them. Seeing them on the big screen, where most of everything is make-believe, robs them of that. Admittedly, heading to your local cinema is much cheaper than heading to Vegas to catch them all, but Worlds Away doesn't come close to the real thing.