Jupiter Ascending Review

Jupiter Ascending is one of the strangest science-fiction films that I have ever encountered which might sound enticing considering the nature of the genre, but it's actually the exact opposite. "Strange" in this case of this movie is not in the fascinating or unique concepts that it offers, but instead refers to the bizarre manner in which the filmmakers skip over the potentially interesting elements just to get to the more boring segments. Jupiter Ascending is one of those peculiar instances where you have a new release that contains a heavy amount of issues that could shined upon and analyzed for hours, yet there still seems to be a decently entertaining science-fiction blockbuster hidden beneath somewhere.

The movie centers around a character by the name of Jupiter Jones (played by Mila Kunis) who, on the surface, is a hard working house cleaner that lives with her family. However, Jupiter discovers that she is actually destined to be an heiress with an intergalactic background and a considerable amount of wealth through her new alien hunter protector, Caine Wise (played by Channing Tatum). Little does she know that her inheritance also includes an alien family of high royalty looking to harvest the planet Earth for what is essentially a powerful fountain of youth serum for the higher rank individuals in the universe. 

Now just by that premise alone, one can argue that we're potentially stepping into a fantastical and compelling character journey considering the scope that's laid out for us, right? Unfortunately, the movie suffers to deliver on its crazy narrative elements as Jupiter Jones is presented as your typical generic damsel in distress archetype constantly getting rescued throughout the entire movie with not much else to offer. 

The idea of her protector, Caine Wise, being this strange hybrid between a human and dog sounded interesting initially when considering a few statements revealed about his character from Stinger (Caine's old partner played by Sean Bean). Stinger tells Jupiter that Caine being part wolf (or whatever type of dog they were talking about) makes things difficult as he naturally needs his own pack instead of fighting solo as he does. There was definitely something semi-intriguing there that could've been explored with his character possibly fighting an inner turmoil of being a hybrid of different species resulting in psychological drawbacks. Instead, we just rushingly jump right to the next action scene that involves Jupiter needing to be rescued over and over again. 

That's basically what this entire movie is essentially when you boil it down. It's a constant pattern of rescue scenes, chase scenes, and character moments that are simply there to set up those aforementioned rescue segments. I honestly don't have too many problems with a viewing experience that's filled to the brim with action packed chase scenes, but if everything happening prior to those scenes comes across as uninteresting or boring, then the whole thing ends up feeling brainless and hollow. Without something truly engrossing happening at the center of a movie like this, you're basically left with surface level appeal to the eyes and ears. This is what I believe lends to the phrase "turning your brain off to enjoy a movie", but this one challenges that sensibility quite a bit. 

Artistically speaking, yes, the world of Jupiter Ascending can be striking to take in at times including quite a few interesting set pieces and fantastically constructed futuristic looking machinery (emphasis on "at times"). Channing Tatum's character, Caine, is seen constantly utilizing the gravity bending capabilities of his boots which allows him to glide through the air in a sort of a skate-like manner. And although some of the visuals surrounding this technology does look a bit off occasionally, I do still admire the general concept behind it.

If we're talking about high tech imagery being put on display, I will say that I quite enjoyed the designs of the space crafts seen during the action scenes taking place on Earth and other areas of the movie. Watching these beautifully crafted alien ships constantly transform their unique physical appearance in order to maneuver through dynamic environmental situations was quite the sight to behold. Being a big fan of fascinating science-fiction technology depicted in storytelling, these particular crafts were arguably the best things about the movie as a whole.

Earlier I said "at times" when referring to the beautiful visuals and there's a good reason for that emphasis as not every single piece of CGI element comes across as impressive. Throughout, we see a couple of hybrid creatures with absolutely no sense of place in the overall world that challenges the viewer's immersion and suspension of disbelief. Standing out like a sore thumb were these dragon-like creatures that posed as servants for the main antagonist. The visual FX work on their characters, especially in their facial animations, was pretty terrible in comparison to everything else that was being shown. It would've been fine if they only showed up for a couple of seconds making a brief appearance or two, but unfortunately, we do see them a bit more often than expected. 

There's also this weirdly designed elephant faced hybrid that we see for roughly 10 seconds or less that also stuck out to me. It was so distracting that I honestly became more fascinated with the thought process behind his design more than anything else that was happening in the movie. 

The Wachowskis are the architects behind this entire rollercoaster ride sitting in as directors, writers, and producers. Some cool and crazy visuals are to be expected in a movie made under their creative vision which is always fun to anticipate. However, what's also to be expected unfortunately is the writing and directing. With a resume including "The Matrix Trilogy", "V For Vendetta", "Speed Racer", "Cloud Atlas", and now Jupiter Ascending, one can begin to see a pattern of highly ambitious ideas being followed by questionable executions and critical division. Their attempts at bringing something new and ground breaking to cinema will always be admired, but the resulting product usually leaves a universally mixed reaction which I believe lies mainly within the storytelling and performances in their films.

The Matrix and Jupiter Ascending for example both suffers from the same issue. Some of the characters feel wooden and bland, yet the explosive action scenes that take place around them attempts to cover that fact. Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss as Neo and Trinty is right up the same alley as Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum as Jupiter and Caine. Our male hero goes into save our female lead every now and then in some spectacular fashion. After or before this supposedly engaging moment, we're handed off some of the worst performed and written dialogue alongside an equally terribly inserted romantic element. 

Speaking of terrible performances, the only one in this entire movie who seemed to have been actually trying, or perhaps just had better material or direction to work with, was none other than Sean Bean. Whether or not he just wanted the paycheck or that he saw something genuinely interesting in the character worthy of his time and talent, his appearance was the only one that had some feeling of authenticity and life at the center of it. Everyone else gives off the same dry, emotionally lacking, and lifeless performance. I can let it slide with the Matrix movies to a small degree being that it's dealing with a cybernetic world where people are constantly surrounded by machines thereby possibly altering their emotional expressions overtime. But for this movie, there's just no excuse.

Emotionless acting aside, we do however get possibly the most overly acted performance that I have ever witnessed in quite a long time. This credit goes to our recently oscar buzzed Eddie Redmayne as the villainous "Balem". With no exaggeration intended, the second he begins to speak in this movie, I legitimately began to contemplate on whether or not Jupiter Ascending was actually meant to be seen as a sci-fi comedy. I think an accurate depiction of Eddie's performance would be the combination of Bela Lugosi's Dracula and Terrence Stamp's character from The Haunted Mansion.

Calling his performance over the top is a major understatement considering that every piece of dialogue that escapes his mouth is either creepily elegant or abruptly loud and filled with anger. In one segment, you'll see him interacting with people in a cartoony fashion that would essentially warrant the use of a cape, a top hat, and a monocle. In another segment, he's shown to be yelling at someone from the top of his voice with absolutely no sense of set up and reasoning whatsoever. Redmayne's screen munching performance is unintentionally a hilarious spotlight for the movie.

When it comes to the pacing, everything here feels like it's being terribly rushed to lead into something bigger and more dramatic. Character interactions and journeys are hurried along towards what's intended to be the climactic points of those narrative elements. One second we see our protagonist, Jupiter, meeting an alien hybrid hunter for the first time in her life which should be a mind boggling big deal for her as human being. Following not too long after is a scene where she's randomly closing in for a kiss with said alien hunter as if they've been romantically connecting for a while.

In another example, she met Sean Bean's character for just a few minutes, but in a future scene, she's greeting him like a long lost friend that she's missed for ages. Throughout the movie, few have several occasions where Jupiter basically just runs along with whatever massively scaled and heavily weighted scenarios are being tossed at her feet as if they were day to day relatable chores. And as much as I can nitpick at the fact that Mila Kunis's questionable acting does nothing to help the situation whatsoever, it's more so the writing and structuring of the movie and her character that's really to blame for the emptiness and nonchalant feeling that's coming across in the story.

Overall, Jupiter Ascending is sadly yet another big budgeted Sci-fi blockbuster from the Wachowskis that goes absolutely nowhere despite its impressive visuals, general concepts, and massive sense of scale. It's a title that promises a lot from its surface content (what appeals to the eyes), yet delivers nothing but an empty shell when looking deeper at its core (what appeals to the mind). The story itself may actually sound decent on paper with its various potential-filled ideas for lore building, but with poor execution being delivered by the filmmakers, these ideas are sadly shattered below the level of mediocrity. In the end, Jupiter Ascending can basically be described as a terrible sales pitch for what could've been an amazing product if given to the right person who knew how to treat the material.

Rating: 4/10