Review of 'Jupiter Ascending'

Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) hates her life as a cleaner of rich people's houses in Chicago working with her Russian family. Little does she suspect that she has galactic royal blood in her veins and is the sole heir to riches of several planets. Unfortunately, it seems that the three other heads of the family don't want her to claim what is rightfully hers but with the help of a genetically engineered warrior, Caine Wise (Channing Tatum), she is plunged into a world beyond her imagination…A world where many want to see her dead.

An amazing looking film (I saw it in 3-D) this sees the Wachowskis going wild on the screen with incredible, fantastically baroque spaceships and worlds. The music here is also memorable with majestic orchestral pieces bringing to the film a sense of occasion…unfortunately, the background story of the events is, while interesting, slightly thin on the ground (and a bit hard to believe). It seems we will be once again subjected to the “evil” and “good” tropes that often plague films like this. Nuance is no where to be found here. Don't get me started about the ending…(seriously?).

Other than Jupiter and Caine we really do not get a lot of insight into the other characters - one dimensional that they are. Surely there is more to it than their megalomaniacal approach to life? There is so much that this movie could have been - Bringing to mind the world of Dune which has the overwhelming sense of glimpsing only part of a massive picture - Here we are not so much burdened with this sense and the picture is worse for it. Sure, the effects might be better than the often maligned Dune movie by Lynch but where Dune has depth Jupiter Ascending does not. A pity. Of course, the Wachowski's are no stranger to substance over story (yes, I am talking about Matrix 2 and 3) but this had such promise…(sigh) I digress.

Reasonably watchable (like watching a video game) with lots of amazing eye candy (yes, including the leads) but ultimately feels a bit disappointing and the plot easily forgettable. Nice music though.

Rating: “Average, but who wants to be average?”

Review Date: 2015-02-14

Directed by: The Wachowskis (Andy Wachowski; Lana/Larry Wachowski)

Studio: Village Roadshow Pictures

Year: 2015

Length: 127 minutes

Genre: Science Fiction

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1617661/

• The Matrix (1999)
• The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
• Speed Racer (2008)

• Cloud Atlas (2012)