Directors: Andy Wachowski & Lana Wachowski
Distributor: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Duration: 127 minutes
Jupiter Ascending (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
Jupiter Ascending tries to tell us a modern kind of Cinderella tale where the seemingly meaningless Jupiter turns out to be actually quite an important person in the galaxy. Of course, no fairytale would be complete without a prince charming and here, that’s Channing Tatum’s role as the cute wolf/human hybrid. If this is already too corny for you, then this movie might not be your thing.
Story wise, Jupiter Ascending has nothing extraordinaire to offer. As said before, Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) is an average girl who cleans houses for a living and who doesn’t seem that interesting at a first glance. That is until some alienlike creatures want to kill her and a gallant erhm… hybrid arrives just in time to save the day. So what’s the deal with the alien hunt on Jupiter? Well, apparently she’s the genetic reincarnation of a powerful woman who controlled a large portion of the galaxy, including Earth. That woman left behind two sons and a daughter and they all have their own plans in mind for Jupiter. As the genetic reincarnation of their mother, Jupiter is basically the one who should own Earth by right and that isn’t really quite welcomed by the siblings.
In the beginning, the story looks to be pretty original but soon enough, what could’ve been a very innovative and creative plot turns into another corny love story where the main character falls in love with her savior. There’s nothing wrong with some romance in a movie and this is of course a title that attracts a certain audience (young adults and teenagers most likely) but here, it’s all way too sudden and awkward to cheer for the relationship. One moment, Jupiter is almost killed by ugly aliens and hunted all over the galaxy by the Abrasax (the siblings) but hey, as long as we’ve got pretty wolf boy here, everything is fine right? Combine this with some overused clichés like the bad guy using this ‘love’ as leverage or the get-saved-just-in-time-by-love interest and you notice soon enough that there’s not much originality left.
However, aside from the mediocre story, the fights are pretty good and prove to be the most fun scenes to take a look at. Thanks to some sci-fi tech, combat is bombastic and full of effects which make a fight a huge spectacle. Jupiter Ascending also offers a variety of creatures, called Splices where scientists combined the DNA of humans with those of animals. One of the main characters, Caine Wise (Channing Tatum) is one of them as his DNA is a mixture of human and wolf. Luckily though, he doesn’t look like a real wolfman as the wolf DNA can be recognized on a rather subtle way on his body. It’s good to say the makers of this movie decided to go with a modern idea of a werewolf instead of just copying old models. Plus, it’d be pretty weird for a girl to fall in love with somebody who represents a wolf more than a man.
Mila Kunis’ acting is nothing to get overly excited about. Sometimes, she even felt quite out of sync for some reason. The chemistry between Kunis’ character and Caine Wise was also hardly felt throughout the movie. Sure, they are a cute couple together but it all seemed a bit too artificial and not sincere enough. Of course, capturing such chemistry in a movie is far from easy so being too harsh on that front wouldn’t be fair. Still though, although she certainly had her better moments in the movie, Mila didn’t really convince enough as Jupiter Jones. Channing Tatum on the other hand succeeded in bringing an interesting character to the table and it’s a bit of a shame that the movie primarily focused on Jupiter as the character of Caine Wise is a lot more mysterious. His past gets mentioned in some quick flashes but it wouldn’t have hurt to know a bit more about wolfboy.
The same can be said for Stinger Apini, played by Sean Bean. As the name might suggest, Stinger is a Splice where human DNA was mixed with bee DNA. Although in Stinger’s case, the bodily alterations were even more subtle compared to Caine’s, he’s another character where you only get information on a need-to-know base. However it may be, Bean is a splendid actor and that’s also the case in this movie.
The Abrasax siblings are played by Eddie Redmayne (Balem Abrasax), Douglas Booth (Titus Abrasax) and Tuppence Middleton (Kalique Abrasax) and they each succeeded in portraying the (very) different natured siblings. Each Abrasax individual has a certain flair or trait which makes him/her stand out compared to the others and it’s pretty fun to see the three work together as although they are all pretty much godlike, the quarrels between the three of them is something people with a sister or brother will know all too well.
Jupiter Ascending comes with a whole bunch of extras. They all give a look behind the scenes of the movie or explain certain aspects a bit more. For example: one is about the person of Jupiter Jones and the comparison with a modern Cinderella tale while another one talks a bit more about the Splices and how they were created. There’s definitely enough to watch here when you crave more Jupiter Ascending after seeing the end credits roll.
Conclusion
Action wise, Jupiter Ascending is an okay movie with some awesome battles and funny looking technology. The story is however, very cliché and unoriginal. The love interest is all too obvious and feels a bit out of place even as the chemistry between Kunis and Tatum is pretty low to non-existent. Kunis’ acting is also nothing to get overly excited about but luckily Tatum, Bean and the actors/actress who play the Abrasax siblings keep the acting performances on a steady level. Overall though, Jupiter Ascending is nothing more than eye candy in terms of bombastic effects without offering an innovative storyline.
Jupiter Ascending (Blu-ray) - Movie Review,
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