Oh
Jupiter Ascending....I had such high hopes for you.
You had this really awesome idea for a an old story, a woman that faces her destiny, and gave it a new twist that stood out amongst so many sequels and reboots and adaptations. A concept that seemed like a perfect fit for The Wachowskis, who are known for such unique and admittedly interesting ideas (see:
The Matrix, adapting
Cloud Atlas AND
Speed Racer, the latter of which, in the last few years, has become a guilty pleasure of mine.) Was I worried that the film might have an issue after being pushed back from July to February? Of course I did, yet I still held out hope, hope that this would be a major comeback for The Wachowskis and that I was going to be treated to a visually appealing, action packed story about a young woman who comes face to face with her destiny.
Well....only half of that happened but man was this a bad one.
Jupiter Ascending is the latest outing from brother-sister directing duo The Wachowskis. Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) is a young woman who immigrated from Russia with her family and now cleans toilets for a living. One night, a group of strange alien creatures begin to attack her until she is whisked away by Caine Wise (Channing Tatum), a soldier spliced with wolf DNA who takes her away to safety. As it turns out, Earth is nothing more than a farm for the House of Abrasax, a mighty alien dynasty who harvests humans to create a type of youth serum to keep them young forever. Jupiter is the reincarnation of the matriarch of the Abrasax family. The eldest member, Balem (Eddie Redmayne), soon puts a bounty on her head and will do whatever it takes in order to make sure she does not take Earth away from him.
So, if you've seen my 15 Anticipated Films of 2015 post, you'll know that this film was rather high on the list (it was in the Top 10). As mentioned previously, the film's premise stood out amongst a sea of sequels, reboots, adaptations and remakes. It also felt like the Wachowskis, after adapting
Speed Racer and
Cloud Atlas, were going to come back with the kind of original story that put them on the map in the first place.
Unfortunately, while some of the basic ideas are interesting and the visuals are flat out amazing, it can't be saved by really bad writing in the story as well as some terrible performances from the main cast.
While Mila Kunis is likeable in the role, she never feels of much substance in terms of character development. Sure, we get brief moments in which she wants money to buy a telescope her late scientist father owned as it reminds her of him and she slowly comes into her own as this reincarnated queen, but for most of the time, she's either looking in astonishment at the events around her or falling off things.....quite a few times actually. Channing Tatum does not fare much better, as he is also doing one of three things: taking his shirt off, growling at people (yes....growling), and taking part in the many, MANY action scenes. Honestly, Tatum HAS proven to be a very good actor in other films, it's just here he does not have the ability to display that. Sean Bean is probably the best actor in the film as Caine's charming rogue type comrade, but unfortunately, he's put off to the sidelines way too much.
But, by far, the worst performance I have seen in the film comes courtesy of Eddie Redmayne as Balem. Oh God, where do I start with this one? This performance is on the level of Mr. Freeze bad. Remember the knight in
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade who said, in a very hushed whisper, that Indy, "had chosen....wisely?" Yeah imagine that performances.....but stretched to a little over two hours. I don't understand why Redmayne decided to give his character a quiet, barely audible whisper only to have him occasionally start yelling for no other reason other than...dramatic tension. Will this hurt his Oscar chances? More than likely not, as he's still a major front runner next to Michael Keaton. But this certainly wasn't exactly a best choice after playing Stephen Hawking.
The only thing I can say about this film positively is that the film, visually, is VERY well done. The film was originally supposed to come out July of last year but the filmmakers pushed it to February, citing the need to want to polish and work on the visual effects and it definitely shows. The design of the worlds outside of Earth as well as the ships and costumes are most impressive. If there is anything the Wachowskis still know how to do, it's have an incredibly visual eye for design. And some of the fight scenes, particularly the ones that make use of Caine's hover shoes, are occasionally impressive....for the first few times then it becomes almost redundant.
However, some of these designs, do at times, look down right silly. There are example such as Redmayne's costumes, the soldier design, dinosaur people, and Jupiter's wedding dress (you've seen it in the trailer, it's the cherry tree come to life essentially). Half of the time I'm oohing in surprise at the design, but other times, I'm just chuckling at them as well.
Finally, there IS a great story in here somewhere, but the Wachowskis never reach that full potential. This is not the first time they have done this. It's just that the story presented in the world itself either a). is rather incomprehensible to follow (so Jupiter can claim Earth even though Balem claims it so now the other two siblings of Balem want her to also try to claim Earth and try to do that in various ways and then Caine himself was a former soldier who hates royalty....yeah you get the idea) or just downright ridiculous (*MINOR SPOILERS FOLLOW) such as when they realize she's royalty....because the bees around Sean Bean's house can sense royalty.....the story had so much potential, but ultimately, it feels wasted.
And that's what
Jupiter Ascending feels like, to be honest: wasted potential. While the visuals are, for the most part, impressive, the film is bogged down by incredibly wooden characters, a goofy villain, and a story that either goes from silly to incomprehensible. A shame, because there is a good movie somewhere in here and this could have been a fun time. With this film, it feels as if The Wachowskis took a major step backwards rather than forwards.
GRADE: D
So what about you, fellow film lovers? Were you excited to see Jupiter Ascending? Or are you not surprised that it came off as bad as the trailers made it look? Sound off in the comments below! And for more film fun, follow me on Twitter @filmfan108!
