Has anybody watched Cloud Atlas yet?

We went to watch it last night as it came highly recommended by over 17000 people around the world, with an average rating of 8.2/10. Tom Hanks, Halle Berry - sounds like a decent cast, right?

After sitting through the 2 and a half hour movie, all I have to say is WTF.

Can somebody more intelligent either explain to me what on earth was going on or, failing that, put my mind at ease and tell me that 17000 people were high when watching the movie, which is why it might have made sense to them.