Jupiter Ascending is an Unothodox Story That is Completely Strange
The directing sibling team of the Wachowskis (Andy and Lana) return with their most ambitious, and frenzied movie to date: Jupiter Ascending. It's hard to find the words to fully sum up this movie but The Matrix in full powered universe-building, crammed with over-blown mythology is pretty good way of putting it.
an unorthodox tale
Russian immigrant Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) is residing in Chicago and works hard for her money in the dead-end job of a cleaning lady. Her beginnings are humble and harrowing. Most days are spent scrubbing excrement from toilet bowls of the wealthy but this humblest of beginnings leads her to becoming the queen of the universe— due to a DNA re-occurrence in the cosmos. Jupiter knows this because an albino pixie wolf warrior with magic flying boots, played by Channing Tatum, comes along and tells her. As they do.
Thats how this unorthodox tale begins. We are then lead down a barrage of long-winded, dialogue heavy scenes which feature plenty of references to philosophical concepts. There is where Jupiter Ascending begins to fall down. It's so jam-packed with deep thoughtful notions it stumbles underneath its own importance. With so much plot left to unravel in this broad scoped movie, the Wachowski's drag us down with unnecessary weight that the narrative doesn't need to carry.
too muddled and hard to process
Once Jupiter Ascending finally overcomes its own importance, we are flung straight into the first major set piece of the movie and it's a joyous, and much need injection of adrenaline. Quick cutting, rapid panning, and camera trickery exemplifies the ability of the directors. They have a great eye and touch for the grandiose of special effects moviemaking. Although spectacular at first sight, they become exhausting. The effects go hand-in-hand with the directors vision of this world but they become too muddled, making it hard to process exactly what's going on.
Its concept and story fails to sustain any kind of intrigue. In its most basic of forms Jupiter Ascending is a movie about a girl who comes from obscurity to become the saviour of mankind. It has moments of incredible technical brilliance, flashes of good character comedy, and some wild leaps of imagination, but rather than taking that simple concept of saving mankind and building an engaging emotional platform within it, the Wackowski's leave us wondering and scratching our heads on plenty of occasions. From royal bees and random elephant faces to instant damage rebuilding and zero-gravity sex, to egg-selling and that wedding sequence; Jupiter Ascending is completely strange.
glaring gaps
For those fans of Eddie Redmayne, Jupiter Ascending is a movie you best not see. Currently the toast of Hollywood for his excellent portrayal of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, Redmayne is totally out of sync as Balem Abrasax. His delivery of very quiet then very loud against the physical performance this character demands of him seems like a misfortune given his true ability as an actor. Its a performance he'd most like to forget soon enough.
Jupiter Ascending is one mad mess from start to finish. The Wachowskis have always put their greatest emphasis on aesthetics and imagination but this time around they have taken their strongest attribute and set it against a narrative that has glaring gaps in continuity.
